News

Kollywood‘Manusangada’ is based on one of the most inhumane practises – of denying someone the right to bury, cremate their kin with dignity on the basis of caste.Anjana ShekarFilmmaker Amshan Kumar’s second feature, Manusangada, that won critical acclaim in international film festivals, has released almost a year after its world premiere at the 19th Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival, 2017. The film is based on one of the most inhumane practises followed even today – of denying someone the right to bury or cremate their kin with dignity on the basis of caste. Manusangada (which translates to Cry Humanity!) follows Kolappan (Rajeev Anand) who has just lost his father and is fighting tooth and nail to give him a dignified burial. Kolappan, who is employed in Chennai, wakes up to the news of his father’s sudden demise. He immediately rushes to his village only to be confronted with the...

Interview The filmmaker talks to Tnm about his upcoming film, which is based on the practice of denying those from lower caste groups access to burial grounds.Anjana Shekar“I travel to rural areas often as part of my work and whenever I do, I talk to villagers and ask them about their pressing problems. I was expecting they’d tell me about the lack of infrastructure like schools, hospitals, connectivity and lack of facilities like good drinking water, etc. But to my surprise many of them invariably said that they wanted good burial sites,” begins documentary filmmaker Amshan Kumar. “Now this did not mean that they had other facilities. Maybe they had learnt to live without them but the humiliation that they undergo every time someone dies is far more berating, far more pressing. When someone dies, there’s fear in their minds. Where to bury the dead now?...