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'You need courage to tell people that they have forgotten to tell this story'
Thankar Bachan takes a daring step with Solla Marantha Kathai
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Shobha Warrier
After the highly successful Azhaki, starring Nandita Das and Parthipan, much was expected from Thankar Bachan when he announced his second film, Solla Marantha Kathai.
When he cast Cheran, an acclaimed film director, as the hero of his second film, it surprised many. But Bachan said he couldn't think of a better person who could portray an educated villager with such conviction and ease.
Solla Marantha Kathai had to compete with big films like Ajith's Villain, Vijayakath's Ramana and Vijay's Bhagavathy during Diwali.
To Bachan's credit, the film stood on its legs in spite of a poor initial. Like Azhaki, Solla Marantha Kathai is attracting people as days pass by. And word of mouth publicity is wreaking its magic here.
Azhaki took critics by surprise with its sincerity, genuineness and novelty. For his second venture, critics thought Bachan failed to rise up to expectation.
Bachan claims that nobody in the history of Tamil cinema had told the story [of Solla Marantha Kathai, which means a story forgotten to be told] before, "Those before me have forgotten to tell this story. You need a lot of courage to have such a title, but I am daring. You need courage to tell people that they have forgotten to tell this story."
The story is about the problems faced by an unemployed educated youth from a remote village in Tamil Nadu, but Bachan wants the audience to view this as a serious problem faced by the youths in all Indian villages. "Poor farmers send their children to study selling whatever property that they have. Soon, they realise how wrong they are. Their children become useless in a way, as they cannot work in the fields like their parents. They find no jobs as well. It is a very pathetic situation.
"Then, many rich men with daughters of marriageable age come and 'buy' these men off. The men marry and find they are slaves, just bonded labourers. They are helpless and cannot help their poor parents or siblings. I have seen this happen in many poor, rural families. It has happened in my family, too. The young man loses his self-respect in the bargain. That is what I want to tell in my film. "
Bachan refused to portray the man who 'bought' the young man or his family nor the girl who marries the young man as villains. In fact, she is shown hopelessly in love with her husband. The director wants to blame only the system that is responsible for this grave problem, and not the people who are responsible.
Bachan also wanted to highlight the break up of the joint family system. He says, "Is anybody in touch with his relatives now? Earlier, we had many children. It whittled down to two a few years ago. Nowadays, you have only one child. It means there are no relationships for the child. He will have a flat to live in, a television for company and a refrigerator for food. He will sit there alone, watching television and sipping cool drinks. He will have no roots. What is the meaning of his life? When I look at children today, my heart bleeds for them."
"I just portray reality," continues Bachan, about the harsh theme of Solla Marantha Kathai. "If reality is sad and brings tears to your eyes, that is reality. What is the life of a villager without tears when he has lost everything including his roots?"
Photographs: Sreeram Selvaraj