MANDELA – A social commentary

Journey of ‘Smile to ‘Mandela’

In an conventionally charged mainstream film language , representation of the underprivileged
as lead characters placed in a politically correct and socially progressive fictional world is a
rarity, but “Mandela” a 2021 Tamil film does more justice by casting a contemporarily busy
comedian ‘yogi babu’ as the protagonist who shoulders the character arc of an underprivileged
illiterate , ignorant victim of the Indian democracy.

‘Simile’ representing the socially and political neglected segment of indigenous communities of
the largest democracy in the world, his first shot which captures his momentary sense of peace
that escapes him to live all his ‘dreams and aspirations’, while taking a midday nap in his cradle
woven by leftover clothes of villagers knotted to a banyan tree situated at the middle of the
communally tense village. This middle aged adult who’s invited with no sense of dignity by
hostile communal groups to clean up dog poop from a newly constructed toilet for the openly
defecating village panchayat encapsulates his social status. The man continues his daily chores
being a part time barber and a full time household aid cum servile worker to the entire village ,
he’s thrown convenient names by different individuals where he’s shown to have already
compromised all of his identities including his own ‘name’. ‘Smile’ serves to be a depiction of
marginalised communities who’s torn between dominant castes , being bureaucratically and
politically ignored swung by turbulence of communal aspirations with nothing left to individuality.
The entire movie plots this identity crisis and fantasises an politically tie between dominant
communities which retrieves identity of this man and the need and potential of it. With the arrival
of postwomen to the panchayat and fear of theft of his hard owned money coincides leading to
documentation of his presence through a bundle of ID cards that’s required to prove the
existence of any citizen. The multiplicity of ID cards and procedural complexities underlines the
bureaucratic redtapism and makes a mockery of helplessness of administrative system to any
common citizen in a popularly multidimensionally illiterate country. Finally it takes the empathy
of at least one postwoman to ‘name’ a helpless man to secure meare documental identity , at
the post office where his name is zeroed to Nelson Mandela , begins a new lapse in his life
that’s gonna take him through a ride of political and social awareness to evaluate his identity
and democratic rights. Yet the villagers continue to deny his self worth as his political , social
and economic power is still nil. Only his ‘vote’ right redeems his name and other existential
identities.

Soorangudi

A fictional village built in the plot to enact typical characteristics of a rural demography , its
geography describes nature of labour force and the scattered settlements in an arid village torn
apart among two dominant communities whose inhabitants remain largely illiterate, politically
ignorant exposing their vulnerabilities giving a chance for exploitation. Basic necessities for a
minimal living are denied taking advantage of peoples ignorance, we could understand it better
in second half of the film where tap connected drinking water supplies are rejuvenated, they
stop buying water cans supplied by panchayat president’s eldest son who had built a watercan
company that manipulates bore well water as purified drinking water serves best depiction of
how far individuals with ‘power’ exploit their own people who are kept away from awareness of
their fundamental rights.

The dominant caste leaders as sons of an old age helpless egalitarian panchayat president
showcase how caste system is capitalised by individuals to capture and retain political power ,
they inflict caste consciousness among their respective communities whenever needed by them
to achieve and maintain their sociopolitical status. Mobilisation of people in name of caste
pushes them deeper into a vicious cycle of ignorance and exploitation. The system of
exploitation resembles a food chain where top most predator is the MLA of the constituency,
secondary consumers are the two sons of the panchayat president who prey upon respective
vulnerable communities potentially divided as caste groups , while the primary consumers are
the caste ridden , poverty stricken villagers itself who turn out to exploit the primary producer
‘MANDELA’. The movie starts with the scene of 2 communities fighting over a common toilets
inauguration gives a great insight into how far the neighbouring communities fight for privilege
denouncing anything in common, but still the people manage to have ‘Mandela’ in common for
their servile work , which means both communities have nothing left specifically ‘lower’ for them
to exploit other than ‘Mandela’ aka ‘smile’.

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Arrival of democracy
Democracy had been reduced to occasional ritualistic practices in the fictional village of
soorangudi , despite there had been an age old panchayat president, the communally tense
village had just idolised him as a knot that can pacify both communities with having 2 wives
each from one community thus striving to strike a balance to remain a mutually acceptable
personality who could at least instil peace though couldn’t bring some ‘real’ change at ground
level. Here his second wife is named ‘valli’ that’s similar to lord Murugan’s second wife bear
weight for an interesting resemblance. The actual realisation of democracy to the people of the
village comes only with bitter communal conflict between 2 heirs of the president competing
themselves to sell resources of the village to a company without having any second thought
about its environmental and economic ramifications on labours and natural wealth of village.
But unfortunately such a democratic exercise of elections doesn’t empower the communal
groups who are ridden over by caste affiliations rather than actual realisation of their vote
power.

Here comes the fantasy plot of the story that poses us a question of ‘what if there’s a tie?’. A tie
among caste groups fantasises an ideal democracy by paralysing caste from politics and
exploring the other dynamics of men in power and their changes in modes operandi to garner
power if not with their well versed, well practiced traditional instrument ‘caste’. This idea turns
interested when we can see candidates wobble and suffer , who had traditionally relied on
caste to gather power starts, wavering with new instruments , their trails and errors gets the
story moving.

The sudden revival of democratic exercise leads to a chaos , candidates resort not just to
incitement of caste affiliations but also infusion of black money , that seems to play a major role
in buying voters along with a promise of themselves to caste vote for their respective communal
candidates over traditionally valued tools like the mangalsutra or issuing of rs.20 as token in
exchange for votes on the polling day. But Mandela’s vote is a different buy , that costs the
candidates more than the money that they had collectively invested on other voters of the
panchayat. Mandela’s voter ID not just reaffirms his voting rights but also his socioeconomic
status , both the candidates who were on track in a race to satisfy Mandela’s immediate needs
go to an extreme level to lobby a single vote through an auction with advise of their problematic

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MLA, this depicts how far the lobby can turn misadventurous and exposes the extent of
corruption plaguing the electoral system.

There are 2 parties here one is the voter on receiver side and the other is the candidate as the
giver side both haven’t realised their actual roles and powers , Mandela is the least ignorant
person who haven’t made any lazy attempt to revive his identity at least by reaffirming his name
as per his choice such a person suffers all kinds of social shocks with sudden revival of
democratic rights , that makes the candidates reduce his value to meare voter ID and nothing
for his real strife for socioeconomic development. This mockery of democracy is the bitter reality
on Indian soil, where poor disadvantaged indigenous peoples are only compartmentalised and
visualised as vote banks for parties struggling to power.

A take on the ‘freebie’ culture

With the candidates resorting to money as a tool to ‘buy’ voters , Mandela is too approached
the same way , but not to stop with cash goes on further with ‘gifting’ daily appliances as
freebies to win over his vote , this scene seemed to have created a wrong perception on the
practice of freebie culture in electoral politics. The actual idea that the movie posed is that the
voter ID assures Mandela’s political as well as socioeconomic rights. He gains an elevation in
social status through the value of his vote in a tie breaking election and its his vote that had
bought him an economic stake, otherwise his dream of building a own barber shop in the village
among such an exploitative population would have remained a dream all throughout his life.

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This sudden social mobility and economic accessibility of Mandela , a downtrodden man among
the hierarchal society pose a sign of risk , danger and invoke feelings of jealous amongst the
villagers who are the primary consumers preying on the lowest possible man , as they are left
with no prey anymore. This invokes jealousy where a drunkard seen lobbying for his vote
refusing to caste his vote revoking even his traditionally followed casteist identity. This is further
ensured by a scene of Mandela realising the privilege of entering homes through front door
rather than traditional access via backyards, and the house owner is latter seen boycotting
Mandela in a helpless situation as a revenge for his attempt to have entered his home through
front door. This social angst is real ,that’s collectively mobilised against Mandela leading to a
social , economic boycott.

In a state like Tamilnadu had been a pioneer in welfare politics , since the Dravidian parties had
acquired power , socio economic accessibility of backward and underprivileged populations had
drastically improved by measures that are far reaching like 30% reservations to
women ,ensuring OBC reservations , universal PDS rations , 1kg rice for rs1 etc… this had
positioned Tamilnadu among early garners of economic advancement through LPG reforms of
90s , post 90s heavy privatisation of industries made state government helpless but to seek
subsides and gifting of consumerist products for welfare of masses like free colour TVsets by
former CM kalaigar and free laptops , bicycles by Jayalalitha these had statistically improved
outcomes of school going children’s attendance rates and made TN as the first state with
highest number of students enrolled in government schools even the free bus ride for women
by CM Stalin is factually proven to have translated into monthly saving of rs888 among families
of TN. Without proper investment into welfare politics , parties tend to invoke and mobiles

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jealousy in an traditionally hierarchical society that entangles caste with economic status ,where
freebies by governments are universal tends to naturally attract hate of upper class/castes.

The same vote of Mandela is later used to redirect candidates towards their duties to provide
the people with basic amenities such as lighting , roads , toilets and schools rather than wasting
money on buying voters instead teaches electoral politics to satisfy needs of voters, this ain’t be
compared with a developed state like TN where basic amenities are not into question thereby
the governments resorts to freebie promise of goods to electorate.

As an art

Mandela movie carries an interesting perspective on how far electoral politics is intertwined with
social dynamics like caste and communal affiliations and explores a variety of tools left for
people in power to retain their status quo thereby creates an awakening call among masses to
be aware of their rights and powers . Inspite of having a strong storyline , the film stands out
with its sarcastic narrative tone where even the darkest of situations are not melodramatic but
dealt in a quirky satirical film language. There are laugh out loud moments where the dialogues
are constructed sharp enough to penetrate through the viewers minds awaking us to empathize
and carefully communicates to us the much needed sensitive sociopolitical message without
being preachy and boring. Nothing more to praise this art form after having won national award
2022 , which the movie very well deserves. Eager for the directors next outing ‘MAAVEERAN’.

An opinion by C.JEYANTH.
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