Posts

Showing posts from November, 2024

Mother of Ironies: Portrayal of Skin Color in Tamil Cinema (Part 2)

Image
I searched for dark skinned heroines in Tamil cinema. But there are none. Since then, I have a beef with Tamil cinema.  While heroes in Tamil cinema have song lyrics and dialogues glorifying their dark skin, the heroines' fair skin is celebrated. "Were you washed clean with white steam? Were you raised without sunlight falling on you? I’m totally confused and floating in the air. I’m totally lost." That's how Dhanush describes Tapsee Pannu in Yathe, Yathe song from Aadukalam. Though resistant at first, she anyway falls in love with the darker Dhanush. Fair skin is a benchmark for higher status in Indian society. If that's wrong and blatantly classist and casteist, then glorifying fair skin on Indian women as the epitome of beauty is also wrong and blatantly classist and casteist.   Tapsee wallows to herself about Dhanush's appearance after he confesses his feelings for her - "Did he look at himself in the mirror?" That's wrong but men say that to...

Mother of Ironies: Portrayal of Skin Color in Tamil Cinema

Image
We are in the midst of baffling times in terms of Tamil cinematic portrayal of dark skin as opposed to fair skin with different rules written for actors (heroes) and actresses (heroines).  There's a good balance of OG Tamil skin tones for the heroes, representing diversity and inclusion. The tones for the heroines are limited to shades of light skin - and none of them are Tamil, unlike the heroes. The representation of dark skin for men in Tamil cinema makes all the ordinary Joes feel "Raja nu pola undu." (You're kings.) And I am happy about it. Everyone deserves representation and dark skin is gorgeous AF.  But the plight of ordinary Janes in the Tamil community who are of the same color as the ordinary Joes is "Vidukathaiya intha vaalkai..." (Why is my life a riddle?) There's hardly any representation for the Tamil melanin queens in Tamil cinema as leading ladies. Their function is to boost the heroine's fair skin through juxtaposition in the bac...

My History with Fair and "Glow"

Image
I was introduced to Fair & Lovely as the ideal “skincare regime” when I was 11 years old. Since then, I’ve thought about some things when I used the cream and watched fairness cream ads. I’ve never had the courage to say them. Until now… Yami Gautam applies the cream only on her face in the ad but her whole body turns white together with her face.💀 Epudraaa… Of course, neither my face got lighter colored nor my body. I wasn’t even dark (just tanned coz I was active in outdoor sports). However, I bought the propaganda that a girl can’t be white enough - the whiter, the better. Why do you need to have light and flawless skin for a successful law profession?😂 I thought, why bother studying anyway if lighter-colored skin can win cases for you when I watched this ad. Why is the judge looking at the color of the female advocate’s skin and not her arguments? I used to use Fair & Lovely to school and I wondered if I could pass my exams with flying colors if I was whiter. It was a non...

Nayanthara: Struggles Before the Success

Image
I watched the documentary about Nayanthara on Netflix: Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale. A woman’s Autograph movie was never seen in our society until Nayanthara’s very public relationships with you know who. And we all know how the men in our society reacted to the divulge. I never thought that she took note of all those nasty, sexist memes about her past and her husband until I watched her open up about it and actually questioning the double standards in the documentary. The documentary detailed Nayanthara's growth as a person and most importantly the journey she endured before meeting, loving, and marrying Vignesh Shivn. I think there are life lessons from Nayanthara's lived experiences in love, choices, and life. You need to shuffle through the bad ones before identifying the good one - this is especially true in love. Men who reveal their quest in a string of failed loves are hailed as genuine people who had bad experiences and overcame them to find their one true lov...

Thalapathy from a Feminist POV

Image
  First of all, this post isn’t denying the unsavory cinematic liberties and stereotypes that Mani Ratnam has spewed in his films. In fact, his Kaatru Veliyidai and Chekka Chivantha Vaanam are major red flags. But still, I want to talk about Thalapathy and the movie’s feminist elements that are way ahead of their time. A man pacifies his wife’s dilemma about her rape and the son she bore out of wedlock. ❤ Indian men’s biggest fear remains if they get “goods that were used by someone else” as their wives. Nayanthara is still abused for her past. Wikki is trolled for accepting a woman who is the leftover of other men. Krishnamoorthy character in Thalapathy broke this mold in 1991. Not only does he marry her, but he also calms Kalyani down every time she feels guilty about her rape and “illegitimate” child. Giving the birth of a girl child a positive outlook - how daughters are more empathetic and caring.💃 In the Malaysian Indian community, daughters are coveted and valued because th...