Assignment submitted by Muruganandan.

Portrayal of the Visually Challenged individuals in Tamil

Film industry, as a vital medium of the mass, has been producing texts to represent
various set of people from different sections, communities and societies. Ever since the ancient
ages various literatures have portrayed several characters with visual impairment. From Teresias,
there are several examples of these characters, who have been either glorified with wisdom or
sympathized with pathos. Film texts have also made constant attempts to represent visually
challenged individuals in the respective social contexts. Though there have been immensely
realistic and powerful characterizations in the third world films like the “Colour of
Paradise”(1983), the portrayal of such individuals in Indian, particularly in Tamil films seem to
be too melodramatic, stereo typical, and misrepresentative. I attempt to extract the prominent
features adopted while representing the visually challenged characters and I restrict myself to a
few Tamil films those have blind characters as protagonists. It is pointed out by the close
observers of Tamil films from this field that generalizing an individual from a particular context
as the representative of the community of the visually challenged has been the trend in Tamil
films. The conception of all such persons belonging to a separate community has also come into
existence with the vital contribution of these films. Making stereo typical characterizations and
often associating them with the profession of singing and expressing several false assumptions
about their life style are also pointed out as the characteristic of Tamil films. To examine these
claims I concentrate mainly on three films namely Kaasi, Kathal Oviyam and Rajapaarvai.

All these three films present the visually challenged persons as central characters. In the
film Kaasi a blind person from atypical village of Tamil Nadu is portrayed who manages to
survive and feed his family through collecting money by singing. He loves a girl who cannot
speak and she comes forward to offer him one of her eyes while living. The big shot of the
village deceives him and rapes his sister who commits suicide. He takes revenge for her death by
strangling the big shot and gets imprisoned at the end. A man, who is an efficient classical singer
with no vision and a girl of the same village, who is a classical dancer, fall in love with each
other in the film Kaathal Oviyam. The girl is attracted by his singing and he is fascinated by the
songs of her anklet. Their love is opposed by the girl’s family and many conspiracies are carried
out. At last he dies and their love is shattered. Almost the same kind of plot is adopted in the film
Rajapaarvai in which the protagonist undergoes several sufferings as a blind. All these characters
share some characteristics and they have made the audience to imagine all such individuals
within a stereo type community.

It is not to deny that there are no such individuals in the real society as portrayed in these
films. But this representation becomes problematic when these stereotypes are generalized to
represent all the visually impaired people. That is, an audience is invariably tempted to identify
any such person they meet in the real life with the features of those characters presented in the
film texts. In all these three films the state of blindness is treated almost as a disease and that
itself becomes the exclusive problem in their life. In Kaasi the entire story progresses towards
treating the blind hero and his sister and his lady love sacrifice their lives for this attempt which
of course fails. In Kaathal Oviyam also the heroe’s blindness is constantly reminded through
various dialogues and action references. These characters themselves are made to claim of
having internal vision, philosophical and profound mental abilities. It is forgotten that there are
many aspects and problems beyond blindness and they have all the so called good and bad
wishes, behaviors and qualities like others. For instance there has hardly been any villainous
character with visual impairment. The real struggles, emotional barriers and the fact of them
having a personality and individuality are also compressed within the blindness. In this aspect,
Kaasi has attempted a relatively little more realistic representation by indulging the hero in the
adventurous task of murdering the villain for revenge.

In all these three films and even in several other films blind characters are most often
associated with the profession of singing and music. They are presented as efficient singers
within their locality and their earning is also connected to singing and it is more like begging
using the advantage of the singing skill. All the five song sequences in Kaasi are sung by the
hero and the lyrics also creates a deep sympathy and admiration towards the man. All the five
songs in Kaathal Oviyam are also sung and enacted by the hero. In the former the songs are sung
to the public and he indulges in creating sympathy for earning. But in the later the emotional
struggles and love get sufficient space and there are two duet song sequences. A recent example
can be found in the film Naan Kadavul in which a blind girls shown as a beautiful singer in the
local trains of Chennai. She is kidnapped by a group of men who keep many beggars in their
control. She is made to sing and beg before a temple. She is killed by a saint at last suggesting
that she is unfit to live and death would bring salvation from all her sufferings. Quite strikingly,
the lyrics of the song she sings is extremely sympathetic in which she mourns severely over her
state of blindness and helplessness. The lyric says that being a blind she is prohibited even to
have dreams and so her life is utterly miserable. The effort is so extreme that a misconception
has been successfully put out that blindness ceases one to have dreams.

Several such misconceptions and false assumptions about the visually challenged persons
have become prevalent among the mass through these films. For instance in Rajaparvai the hero
says that he moves around the familiar places by counting the number of steps. In real no
visually impaired person does calculate the distance by measuring the steps. Kaasi has a gallery
of such instances. In this film the man is said to calculate the time quite exactly by feeling the
warmth of the sun which is hardly possible. Though it is pointed out within the film itself, it
indulges in creating false myths by distorting the facts related to eye donation. The villain
convinces that one can donate ones eye while being alive. The comic sequences in these films
are also based on such false assumptions. Factually, their lifestyle, behaviors, and even thinking
are not so different or abnormal or meticulous as presented in these films.

Another characteristic of such portrayals is that persons with low and partial vision are
never portrayed in the films and there are only characters with total blindness. This absence is so
common perhaps since the creation of sympathy or admiration is cannot be attributed to such
categories of visual impairment. Interestingly, the portrayal is more lively and more realistic in
the characters those lose their vision in course of their lives. In these cases generally the
characters are blinded for the purpose of twisting or progressing the plot further. For example in
the film Thullatha Manamum Thullum the heroine loses her vision in an accident in laboratory
but passes the civil service exam by availing the assistance of a scribe. She meets the hero after
losing her eyesight and loves him who earlier appeared as a rogue whenever she saw him. Her
becoming a blind is used to conceal the fact that he is the the same rogue she hates.

It is obvious that the portrayal of the visually challenged individuals has generally given a
misrepresentation in Tamil films over a large period of time. In my point of view the reason for
such representations seems to be not because the directors make deliberate manipulations but
because they are largely unaware of the facts about the persons they represent. They are
generally carried away by the popular assumptions and imaginations. In recent times films like
Mozhi do appear. In this particular film the girl with hearing impairment is presented as a
practical, realistic, and independent individual. One can hope for the emergence of films with a
closer representation of the differently abled in the near future, If the same trend continues.