Water? Water!

There are movies you watch and then there are movies that move you. 'Thaneer Thaneer' (Water, Water) easily falls in the latter. I often feel that movies should challenge our intellect. If they fail to teach us how to wonder about the quirks of society, then this form of art lies wasted.

Tamil director K. Balachander's 1981, 'Thaneer Thaneer', a screenplay rich with symbolism, explores a drought striken village's attempt to salvage their life. Water is in short supply but satire floods this exceptional masterpiece.

The title of the movie is presented with the background of a broken, dry ground showing us that the place has experienced a drought. During the opening credits we hear the villagers discussing the lies fed to them which also gives us an insight into their life.

"Kandalaanum Kasiki Kattu"

Loosely translated it means even if your dress is torn, wash it and then wear it. How do you explain this Tamil proverb to a child who has not seen any water in his village for close to 10 years? K Balachander poses this question in sharp witted scene. When the school teacher of drought-affected Athipatti tries to teach this proverb, a little boy points out its irrelevance. Athipatti has not had drinking water for a decade. The school master realizes his faux pas, however masks the same by moving on to different lesson.

The irony of this scene continues with the school teacher asking his students to repeat,"India is an independent country". The children promptly repeat. “How many years has it been since we got our independence?,” he asks them next. “33 years,” they shout in unison. “How many?” he asks again."33 YEARS". All the while the camera intermediately focuses on a broken blackboard in the background highlighting the word "Grow India".

The parched landscape has affected every villager’s life in one way or the other. No one is willing to marry into Athipatti’s families. Villagers take a bath in secret with stolen water, are amicable for any request with the exception of water.

Attempts to draw the government’s attention to Athipatti’s plight end up in failure.

A petition to the government gets lost in the administrative cogs. Using the media(newspaper) to draw attention to this plight also gets blocked due to the misplaced priority of the media house. Ironically, even a self driven initiative to construct a water canal is blocked by the municipal authorities.(government of the day)

Balachander makes no attempt to mislead audiences into thinking that there is light at the end of the tunnel,nor does he scrimp on the satire.

The portrayal of the government's apathy is one of the best scenes in the movie, wherein the petition handed over to the minister is shown. The minister passes it on in front of them to his secretary, saying it is an urgent issue. The secretary immediately passes on the petition to the collector, again reminding him it is urgent. The collector passes it on to another officer, who in turn passes it on to the tahsildar and the petition then finally rests in the guard's pocket.

This reminds me of a story I read in school, 'Jamun ka Ped' which shines light on administrative policies and how it is valued over a person's life.

A conversation comes up in the movie between the protagonists which talks about a tree bearing the flags of different political parties. When asked , the protagonist ironically replies while governments kept changing, promises being made, our plight remains unchanged.

In the end the flags can be seen in a patch of water. Every inch of it is covered by a political flag, leaving nothing for the ordinary citizen.

In conclusion I would like to say that even though it has been 39 years since the movie has been made, the real need of the common man continues to be sacrificed at the altar of the desires of its rulers,even today. At the same time we continue to have protagonists who believe there is hope for a better India.

Image credits:

IMDb