Maadathy is one film that addresses caste based atrocities. Puthirai vannaar is a Dalit caste group, and lives in southern part of Tamil Nadu state in India. Their forced-occupation is to wash clothes of other Dalits, the dead and the menstruating women. The sight of Puthirai vannaars, as per caste norms, could pollute the so-called upper caste groups. Puthirvannars were forced to live in shrubs so they could remain unseeable to others. Maadathy is their deity. This film is a tale about a young girl who grew up in Puthirai vannaar caste group and how she came to be immortalised as their local deity, Maadathy.
Asian Voice reached out to the director of Maadathy, Leena Manimekalai and asked: "What is the process and the kind of responsibilities that a filmmaker needs to shoulder while making films on issues related to caste and gender?”
Leena said, “My films are people participatory and my art practice is more process oriented. In my first feature Sengadal, the DeadSea that spoke about the lives and struggles of fishermen and refugees in the Indo Lankan bordershore Dhanushkodi, it is the community who were actors in the film. It is cinema verite and the community not only were actors but participated in the script, dialogues and production. My second feature Maadathy, an unfairy tale, though being a pure fiction, was entirely acted out by very own community whose story was told. We could realise it by rigorous workshops, dialogue training, series of rehearsals before going for actual shoot. This enables the process to become a sort of social sampling, an anthropological experiment where there is immense interaction and exchange between film crew and the community. I always use location recording so that the language is carefully represented and through the workshops the script is constantly improvised with the inputs of the community. Even the mis en scene evolves in the rehearsals and I think that's where my films become the true expression of solidarity with the stories of people I intend to portray. I refuse to be called the voice of the voiceless as I think I am only spreading myself as a canvas for my people to paint their own stories.”
The filmmaker also said, “I want my audience to self reflect and empathise and also actively participate in the stories I say. I keep people as my primary concern than anything in my art practice and they are not mere subjects but co-creators.”
“I despise and fiercely resist transporting the stories of the oppressed to some hero vehicle, making the gaze external and voyeuristic, resorting to violence as the fabric to manipulate the emotions of the audience,” she added.
