© 2019 JETIR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 3 www.jetir.

org (ISSN-2349-5162)

Ecofeministic Approach to the Film

Thanneer Thanneer by K.Balachander.
Prof. Vennila.A
Department of English, Government Arts College, Kulithalai – 04
vennilaprabhakaran@gmail.com

Abstract:
Eco feminism, a social and political movement claiming a considerable common ground
between environmentalism and feminism is a global crisis and the UN estimates that among the farmers
in developing countries who are affected by floods and other natural calamities, 75% are women and
25% are men. Even now, one in ten people lack access for safe water and in many countries people
depend on women for water; women spend 6 hours a day, 42 hours a week and 91 days a year to carry
water. One such woman Shevanthi, who is the representative of all such women who crave for their
basic needs and basic rights even today, was the protagonist of this film, Thanneer Thanneer (Water,
Water) one of the best films about India from India. A village named "Atthipatti" had been suffering
from scarce of water supply because nature betrayed them by not raining for many years and the
government also didn’t care for them. The film highlights the plight of the villagers and the sufferings
they endure at the hands of bureaucrats when they try to resolve their problem. They were talking
about the "unification of all rivers across India" in the film in 1981, which was impossible then and the
situation is not different from today because even after some 35 years also the condition is like that, no
matter what. This paper tries to interpret the ecofeministic elements in this film Thanneer Thanneer
which was originally an award-winning and sensational play written by Komal Swaminathan , a
congressional activist in his early years, a Tamil theater personality, film director and journalist, and later
directed by K.Balachandar, known as a ‘director who scaled the peak’ for his distinct film-making style.

Keywords: Eco feminism, water scarcity, plight of women, global crisis.

Eco-feminism started as a social and political movement in the twentieth century against
environmental destruction and oppression of women. Ecofeminism describes movements and
philosophies that link feminism with ecology. The term 'Eco-feminism’ was first introduced by the
French feminist Froncoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974).
Like the two sides of a coin, nature and women are inseparable in the way that anything against
nature is hazardous to the environment and anything against women is hazardous to the society. Not only
the identification of women with nature is considered as a source of strength, but also, the oppression of
women is found to lead to environmental degradation. Eco-feminism brings together elements of the
feminist and green movements by offering solutions to both.
Feminist Environmental Justice campaigner Vandhana Shiva points out that on an average, a rural
Indian woman traverses 14,000 km a year just to fetch water. “In every household, in the rural areas in the
desert state of Rajasthan, women and girl children bear the responsibility of collecting, transporting,
storing, and managing water….Natural sources are drying up which adds the kilometers for women
everyday to quench the thirst of their family as well as animals,” says Shiva.(The Hindu)
Eleanor Allen, CEO @ Water for People (a non – profit organization) says “Travelling long
distances to fetch water, the precious commodity, balancing heavy pitchers on their head while juggling
households, children and cattle, working on farms as well as giving care to the elderly, they have had to
do this drudgery for decades. In many rural areas, women walk over 2.5 km to reach water sources. 1.8
billion People around the world don’t have access to safe water and 2.4 billion (32% of the world’s
population) lack accesses to adequate sanitation. Women and children spend more than 4 hours walking
for water each day, and more than 840,000 people die every year because of water-related disease.
500,000 children die from drinking contaminated water. Until everyone has access to safe and reliable
drinking water, the death toll will continue to rise.” (The Hindu)

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Thanneer Thanneer (Water, Water) is a great woman based Tamil film, which has literalism
throughout. This is one of the best films about India from India. The story was written by Komal
Swaminathan and directed by K.Balachander. This film won the Best Screenplay award at the national
level and the Silver Lotus award for the best Tamil film.
The story was written by Komal Swaminathan (1935-1995) who was a noted Tamil theater
personality, film director, editor of Tamil literary magazine 'Subamangala', a congressional activist in his
early years, and a journalist. He had staged 33 plays, received the National Award and won international
acclaim for this film Thanneer Thanneer in 1981.
The veteran director of South Indian Cinemas K.Balachander directed the film in 1981. He was
known as ‘the director who scaled the peak’ (Iyakkunar Sigaram) because of his distinct film making
style, He was a meticulous Indian filmmaker and playwright, a master of avant-garde themes, social
themes and complicated interpersonal relationships. His films are well known for their representation of
women as bold, strong and intelligent. He directed a few TV serials and made a few film appearances as
well. He received the Padma Shri award, India's fourth highest civilian award, in 1987 and the Dadasaheb
Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema. In addition to this, K.Balachander had won many awards
and rewards which include nine National Awards and thirteen Filmfare Awards.
This film portrays the pathetic condition of a village named "Atthipatti", the people of that village
had been suffering from scarce of water supply because nature betrayed them by not raining for many
years and the government also didn’t care for them. Athipatti's woes have been aggravated by a long dry
spell. There is only one perennial well in the village, but its water is not potable because those who drink
it are badly affected by a kind of crippling disease. The nearest drinking water source is a pond some ten
miles away and thrice a week the villagers have to walk that long, strenuous distance to fetch a few pots
full of water. They tried many ways to convey this suffering to Government but the Government did not
respond to the problems. The term hydro politics better explains the main theme of the film as the
politicians who came to village to harvest the votes from the innocent people by poisoning their mind
with ‘Caste-feeling’ did not even work for their community. It was shown clearly, when the villagers
boycotted the Election.
At last, after they were tired of this Government, they were forced to invent the method to
bring the water resources from a faraway place. So they worked hard for many days to make a small
canal of 10 Miles. A rock barring the water resources had to be destroyed to make the water flow to
the canal. At the time, with some officials, Government decided to stop this work by threatening to
shoot them and they started to shoot them when the villagers marched towards the task. It is a
horrible scene that people are deprived of their basic needs and shot to death for demanding their
basic rights. In the end it turned out that all of the villagers were just walking out of the village,
without knowing where to go, with tear and fear at the heart.
The film highlights the wretched condition of the villagers and the sufferings they undergo
without rain which results in water scarcity, unemployment and poverty. The parched land is not fit
for agriculture and there is no other venture for any job or business and no income for their living.
A teacher in the film, the only educated man in that village, who had been transferred to this
waterless village, a punishment area for him, reads from the newspaper that in the 6 th Five Year
Plan, ninety thousand crore-project was proposed for the linking of all the rivers in India. The
government was talking about the "unification of all rivers across India" in the film in 1981, which
was impossible then and the situation is not different from today because even after some 35 years
also the condition is the same and the proposal is still in the papers and not executed.
The central character of the film Shevanthi is the representative of all women who crave for
their basic needs like drinkable water, toilets and basic rights like independence, education, etc.
The heroine Shevanthi appears throughout the film and the story moves around her expressing very
seriously the problem of water scarcity.
The opening scene portrays the pitiable condition of Shevanthi, the central character, who
walks ten miles a day carrying her child tied to herone shoulder, one or two pots of water on her
head and waist, and firewood in a hand. The path she walks was full of cracks and parches looking
almost like a desertOn her way home, Shevanthi gives water to many persons who are badly in need
of water. Among them are two men who are about to drink water from a pond directly with their
mouths like animals. The impact of the scene creates a bitter sadness in the minds of the viewers,
and moreover the water of the pond is not drinkable. Then she helps a government officer who
needs water for his car’s radiator.

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On another occassion Shevanthi gives water to Vellaichamy to prevent him from death as he
was having hiccups while eating the food he brought. Women carry huge pots of water and walk
many miles to fetch water everyday. The film depicts the reality of the burden of drought that
women in Tamil Nadu carry. A priest in the film would try to get some water for his home in a
dishonest way, by telling Shevanthi that he needs water to clean the Mariamman Idol and by
threatening her with a curse that the consequence of not giving water would lead to more disasters.
Women are exploited in the name of god as nature is exploited by God.
Nature worship is commonly practiced in India and the filmic discourses also blame the
anger of Gods for lack of rains by showing the dependency of people on nature and how the
vagaries in weather affect their lives. The impact of drought as shown in the film are mainly
migration from their ancestral lands as agriculture could not be continued due to lack of water,
people in search of livelihood ending up as bonded labourers in faraway lands, children sent away
as child labourers to cities to support their families. The people also fall victim to superstitions and
godmen in the hope that their problems will be solved if they appease their deities. These scenes
expose the exploitation and vulnerability of the poor people in a crisis situation, willing to go to any
extent to stay in their home villages. Paralytic attack on consuming contamina ted water from wells
and rivers echoes the human misery. The villagers have a long history of facing ecological threats
and their life is by and large evolved based on the environment..
When Shevanthi felt three drops of water on her face and hand, she rejoiced hopin g that they
may get rain and all other women also joined her in dancing and singing a welcome song for rain.
But when it failed to rain she felt disappointed and cried bitterly. She tries all means to bring water
to the village but fails in all attempts and loses the goodwill of her police husband because of
protecting Vellaichamy, who was an accused for two murders. Inspite of being a good wife, she was
hated by her husband for that one reason. But getting water for the villagers is more important for
her than living with her husband. When everybody migrates from the village, it is Shevanthi who
stands and cries looking at the sky, in the end when there is no meaning for her living.
Vellaichamy’s wife is another victim of the male dominated society because for the loan
Vellaichamy’s father had borrowed from a landlord which was not repaid, the land of Vellaichamy
was grabbed by the landlord and Vellaichamy was made to work for him in his own land as a slave.
Furthermore like any other object, Vellaichamy’s wife was taken into custody and seduced by the
landlord. She was killed by Vellaichamy her own husband when Vellaichamy tried to kill the
landlord. In his attempt to save her from the hands of the landlord, he killed his own wife
unknowingly. Vellaichamy was actually a victim and not a villain and killed his innocent wife.
Because of the greedy landlord and the angry husband she had to die. This shows how guiltless
women are oppressed and destroyed by the male dominated society.
The other women characters in this film are a dalit girl who is loved by a higher caste man,
first attracted by her song and it is thought provoking when she says that while she is untouchable
how come her song touches the ears of the lover and asks whether it is correct. She gives him two
buckets of water for taking bath secretly in the night time as a token of her love for him. In this film
it is water scarcity that keep the women and children sad and miserable`
All the women of the village went on a protest against the election and when the election
candidate tried to enter the village, all the women stood on a strike keeping across the road all their
mud pots, but the pots were broken by him when he rode his car on the pots. The cries of the women
went unheard by the villains as well as the government. In addition to the politicians nature also
exploits women.
When Vellaichamy, who brings water for the villagers from the far away pond, is beaten
black and blue by the villains, Shevanthi sings a song which gives a beautiful comparison between
nature and woman. The song which is in the form of a lullaby, sung for comforting her crying baby,
expresses her grief as well as consoles the heavy hearts of the young men of the village who were
preparing to go in fight with the villains. When they hear the song their anger cools down, they
become cool and drop the idea of fighting with the villains for beating Vellaichamy black and blue.
The song begins with a melancholic idea that the baby is supposed to sleep until the tears of the
mother flow like a river towards the cradle in which the baby is sleeping, drench it and disturb the
sleep of the baby. Shevanthi adores her baby as ‘spring water’ expressing the id ea that the spring
water is as precious as a baby. She sings that there are plenty of clouds but the clouds have no heart
to pour as rain in this village. She further adds that the clouds which once give water now shed
blood, by which she depicts not only the pitiable condition of Vellaichamy, who brings water to the

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villagers, now gets beaten, and literally shedding blood but also nature which was harmed by man in
the past in turn is harming man now. Moreover, she sings that the pots that are waiting for water are
overflowing with tears of women and children.
The dialogues, the song and each and every frame of the movie, apparently depict the
miserable position of women in drought areas, the poor people longing and struggling for their basic
needs. The politicians besides failing to take any steps to provide water for the villagers, stopped all
the efforts the villagers take to bring water to their village.
‘The ecocide also has a great impact on the humans as their lives also become barren as the
land. With no education, alternate employment or access to outside world, the life of the villagers
especially women is downcast. The interdependence of humans with nature is a part of the lives of
people. But with urbanization and mass migration, there is disconnect with the land and a reduction
in the forest area. This directly affects girls’ education and women’s ability to work and be liable to
their families, which negatively impacts their quality of life. Countless numbers of women and
children spend more than 125 million hours a day collecting water for their families, walking miles
at a time. In 2016, when more people have access to cell phones than toilets, women and girls living
without a toilet spend 266 million hours each day finding a place to defecate. What if they could
buy back that time to invest in their work, education, and communities, and make an equal
contribution to society and the economy?’ (The Hindu)
When climate change-related disasters strike, women are more vulnerable than men, and the
workload of women and girls increases. Many rural Indian women worldwide spend hours each day
hauling water for her family to drink and wash, which confines their opportunity for progress. The
parched and cracked earth plots give no hope to the people for earning their bread and so they move
to the city to look for a better life. Apart from economic and social ramifications, doctors are
discovering an alarming impact of the water crisis on women’s health, both mental and physical.
Whether it’s the physical stress of collecting water from tankers in dozens of pots daily, or the
emotional stress of managing with very little water or maintaining menstrual hygiene in times of
acute water scarcity, it’s a tough haul for the ladies. Loss of livelihood increases women’s
vulnerability and marginalisation.

References:
1. Thanneer Thanneer. Written by Komal swaminathan, Directed by K.Balachandar,
performance by Saritha, Kalakendra movies, 1981.
2. The Hindu, New Delhi, May 3 2016 (IPS)
3. Mies, Maria & Shiva, Vandana, Ecofeminism. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood
Publications and, London and New Jersey: Zed Books. (1993), p.63, 72.

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