Kanchana Sita
Encyclopedia
Kanchana Sita is a 1977 India
n Malayalam
feature-length
film scripted and directed by G. Aravindan
. A mythological film, its story was adapted from C. N. Sreekantan Nair
's play of the same name
, which is a reworking of Valmiki
's Ramayana
.
The film interprets a story from the Uttara Kanda of the epic poem
Ramayana, where Rama
sends his wife, Sita
, to the jungle to satisfy his subjects. Sita is never actually seen in the film, but her virtual presence is compellingly evoked in the moods of the forest and the elements. The film retells the epic from a feminist perspective. It was shot in the interior tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh
. The roles of the epic heroes are played by Rama Chenchu
tribal people, who claim lineage to the mythological Rama. Director Aravindan interweaves the Samkhya
-Yoga
philosophical concepts of Prakriti-Purusha
bonds throughout the film.
The film was produced by K. Ravindran Nair under the banner of General Pictures. The film features an original score by classical musician Rajeev Taranath
, cinematography by cinematographer-turned-director Shaji N. Karun
, editing by Ramesan, and art direction by Artist Namboothiri. The film became a major critical success upon its release in 1977, although a few mainstream critics panned it. It is credited with being at the forefront of a trend towards independent filmmaking in South India. The film earned Aravindan the National Film Award for Best Direction.
and Lakshmana
to kill Shambuka
– the shudra
who performs penance – but Shambuka's wife pleads for his life, and he is spared. Rama and Lakshmana return to Ayodhya to face Urmila, the spirited wife of Lakshmana. Rama replies to her reproaches for abandoning Sita
in the Dandakaranya
forests, through which they have just journeyed, that the husband of Sita is only a servant of the people of Ayodhya.
The next day, Vasishta arrives to suggest that Rama perform the Ashvamedha
yaga (the ritual sacrifice of a horse to Agni
, the god of fire) but Rama cannot do without his wife by his side. He is averse to taking a second wife, as Vasishta further suggests. The anguish of Rama at this point is juxtaposed with the people of Ayodhya joyously celebrating the harvest.
Bharata
, a brother of Rama who had left Ayodhya twelve years ago, returns. He objects to Rama performing the yaga without Sita. Their argument almost culminates in a physical fight, but nature intervenes; the skies open and a cooling rain pours down upon them.
The yaga begins, with Lakshmana accompanying the horse. The horse strays into Valmiki
's ashram
(hermitage), where Rama's son Lava
and Kusha
are being brought up. Lava stops the horse and is ready to fight Lakshmana (as the yaga demands). Lakshmana orders that the horse be released, but once again nature takes a hand. Valmiki is strangely moved by what he sees, and he begins to compose the Uttara Rama Charita – the story of Rama.
The horse is led back to Ayodhya, and the ritualistic second stage of the yaga starts. Just then Rama receives the news that Shambuka has resumed his penance, and Lakshmana is despatched to slay the erring shudra. As the ceremony nears completion, Valmiki arrives with Lava and Kusha, but Vasishta debars Valmiki from entering the yagashala. Rama recognises Lava and Kusha as his sons, and takes them to his heart. The joy of Sita, then, is represented in the glorious splendour of nature.
– it is an interpretation. Somehow the part I liked most in the film is this end."
-Yoga
philosophical concepts of Prakriti-Purusha
bonds are used in the film. Prakriti and Purusha, as philosophical concepts, have their genealogy in the Samkhya-Yoga school of Indian philosophy
. In Samkhya thought, Purusha is the Transcendental Self or Pure Consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable, above any experience, and beyond any words or explanation. It remains pure, nonattributive consciousness. Purusha is neither produced nor does it produce. Unlike Advaita Vedanta
and like Purva-Mimamsa, Samkhya philosophy emphasises the plurality of the Purushas. Prakriti is the first cause of the universe – of everything except the Purusha, which is uncaused, and accounts for whatever is physical, both matter and force. Through its threefold gunas or characteristics of the physical universe, Prakriti binds Purusha, the self (in the minimal sense of awareness or sentience), which itself is not distinct from Prakriti. A written comentary that throws light on Aravindan's interpretation of the play precedes his film proper. The opening scroll reads, "This film is an interpretation of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana. Our mythologies and the epics are constantly re-created in retellings. The epic is the basis for this visual interpretation as well. This film deviates from established norms in how it visualises the protagonists and portrays the course of events in the epic." The scroll explains that the film will try to reflect what it calls the epic's adi-sankalpam (original conception) of the theme and the protagonists. It states that "the inner essence of the film is that woman is Prakriti. Ultimately Purusha, here conceived of as the masculine self, dissolves into Prakriti. Ezhuthachan's Adhyathma Ramayana, one of the first Malayalam poems, also views Rama as Purusha and Sita as Prakriti. Aravindan stated in an interview that "C. N. [Sreekantan Nair] had made clear the prakriti-purusha notion in Ramayana". But Aravindan took the extraordinary cinematic step of representing Sita as Prakriti.
wrote his magnum opus play Kanchana Sita
in 1961. He took the inspiration for this play from the Uttara Kanda (kāṇḍa: chapter) of Ramayana. Uttara Kanda is the seventh and last book of Ramayana. It concerns the final years of Rama, Sita, and Rama's brothers, and is regarded to be a later addition to Valmiki's original story. The play is the first of Sreekantan Nair's dramatic trilogy based on the Ramayana. The others are Saketham and Lankalakshmi. A reworking of Ramayana, the play is about the tragedy of power and the sacrifices demanded by adherence to dharma
, including abandoning a chaste wife.
Kanchana Sita was developed by Aravindan, based on the play. The screenplay and dialogues of the film were written by Aravindan himself. The film is conceived differently from both Nair's play and the original Uttara Kanda of Ramayana. If the Uttara Kandas critique of sovereign power is buried in the karmic webs of Rama's life, Nair's play carries a sharply materialistic edge in its critique of Kshatriya
-Brahmin
ical power. In contrast with both, Aravindan's thematic content is much more directly focused on Rama's inner conflict between moksha (the desire for enlightenment) and artha (the desire for sovereign power). Sita does not appear in the film at all, but is depicted as prakriti, or all-pervading nature, and the different moods of Sita are shown as different aspects of nature. Nair rewrote the final section of Valmiki's Ramayana as a critique of brahminical privilege and political repression. Using Nair's play only a starting point, Aravindan transformed the script according to his interpretation of Indian philosophy and his minimalist aesthetic. He replaced Nair's crisply-articulated exchanges of dialogue with a cinematic meditation on Rama's separation from, and eventual union with Sita, thus carrying the concept of Sita as Prakriti to its visual limit.
Similarily, Aravindan deliberately did not give a superhuman quality to Rama and Lakshmana. Only when they interact with Nature do they rise to the levels of God and go beyond the ordinary. In Aravindan's own words, "otherwise they would have been the same as anybody else." Diametrically opposed to this, Valmiki is given an appropriate form and beauty.
(1978), Kummatty (1979), Esthappan (1980), and Pokkuveyil (1981).
s (tribal members) from Andhra Pradesh
known as the Rama Chenchus
(also known as Koyas), who claim that they are the descendants of the Ikshvaku clan, to which Rama belonged. Aravindan's idea was not to use conventional actors, but to find people who had reached the state of awareness that the role required. Rama Chenchu healers play the central roles of Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Lava, and Kusha. Shambukha was played by a wayside tapasvi, while a destitute woman acted in the role of his wife. The credited cast of the film includes Ramdas, Venkateswarlu, Chinna Pulliah, Kesava Panicker, Krishnan, Pottiah, Rangiah, Siva, Sobha Kiran, and Annapurna. The name of each village chief is Ramdas. The tribal who acted as Rama is also a village chief. Director John Abraham gave voice for Valmiki's character. When asked how he got the idea to use tribals for the film, Aravindan said, "These tribals come to Trivandrum to sell herbal medicine. They are extremely intelligent. In fact, the tribals inhabiting the nine villages around the Godavari river in Andhra are supposed to have the highest I.Q. among Indian tribals. The tribe I selected is known as the Rama Chenchus. They claim to belong to the dynasty of Rama. Physically, I feel, they fit the description given by Valmiki." This experiment in casting resulted in several difficulties during production. A precise detailing had to be done because most of the actors could only react to demonstrated instructions. Communication with the actors was carried out with the help of Manohar Dutt, painter and lecturer at the College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad. Dutt also accompanied Aravindan and his associate, journalist and filmmaker Chintha Ravi
, on a preliminary trip to Andhra Pradesh to finalise the locations.
, and in the Vicarabad
forest belt in Telengana. Aravindan abandoned the typical alternation in setting of mythological films and dance dramas, including Sreekantan Nair's play, by moving Rama's story into the landscape Adivasis, imagining Ayodhya in the forest. Its places are forest caves, its streets are tracks in the wilderness, and its Sarayu
river is the Godavari river winding through rural Andhra Pradesh. Aravindan identified locations 160 kilometres (99.4 mi) away from Rajahmundry
, along the expanse of Godavari river and its ribbed red earth banks. Cinematographer-turned-director Shaji N. Karun
wields the camera. Karun has been a recurring collaborator in Aravindan's films. He was assisted by popular cinematographer S. Kumar who was in his early days of career.
Filming took place at the time when the Emergency was declared in India. Police were combing the entire area around Rajamundhry in their hunt for the Maoist People's War Group. Members of the production team were interrogated by the police several times because they looked different from the natives.
The film was completed using simple devices such as table fans to rustle the leaves. A few unexpected things happened for the good while shooting the climax scene. For instance, a rare and unexpected early morning mist on the banks of Godavari made the whole scene ethereal.
described Kanchana Sita as one of the most poetic films in Malayalam. Scholar V. Rajakrishnan noted that Aravindan had not fully considered the implications of locating Rama's story in an Adivasi community. Rajakrishnan pointed out that the rigid economy of expression and the subdued acting styles, which appear to render all dialogue artificial, reduce the element of human drama that is so prominent in Sreekantan Nair's play. Poet and scholar Ayyappa Panicker views Sita's absence as typical of Aravindan's style, in which there is a conscious, meticulous effort "not to communicate in order to communicate". Panicker described Aravindan's expressive style using his own concept of antarasannivesa, or the poetics of interiorisation. "Sita is not a woman, or an individual, but an eternal concept in the film", Panicker said in an interview. The Hindu critic Sashi Kumar stated, "In the film, Aravindan synthesises into a consummate whole his marginality principle and his anthropomorphic contemplation of nature." Vidyarthy Chatterjee of The Economic Times
said, "Visually stunning in many passages and using sound in such a manner as to make for heightened aesthetic pleasure, Kanchana Sita is a milestone that has unfortunately been bypassed by many who would have done better to focus on its innovative elements". Yves Thoraval said, "Kanchana Sita is a visually dazzling film illustrating this long mythological episode potentially rich in dialogue but of which G. Aravindan has chosen to make a non realist, virtually silent and contemplative film by calling up a tribal population to portray the mythological characters".
The National Film Award for Best Direction was given to Aravindan for "the film's courageous and uncompromising exploration of an ancient epic theme through a pronouncedly new cinematic language, for making the camera speak more eloquently than the introspective characters of the Ramayana, for projecting against the vast backdrop of nature, for matching profound philosophical ideas with astonishing evocations of the beauties of the physical world".
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Malayalam
Malayalam language
Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...
feature-length
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
film scripted and directed by G. Aravindan
G. Aravindan
Govindan Aravindan who was popularly known as G. Aravindan was a national award winning film director, screenwriter, musician and cartoonist from Kerala, India. He was known for his unorthodox way of film-making; he changed his cinematic forms consistently and experimented in story telling without...
. A mythological film, its story was adapted from C. N. Sreekantan Nair
C. N. Sreekantan Nair
C. N. Sreekantan Nair was a Malayalam playwright. He is probably best known for his Ramayana trilogy - Kanchana Sita, Saketham and Lankalakshmi - based on the epic Ramayana...
's play of the same name
Kanchana Sita (play)
Kanchana Sita is a 1961 play by renowned Malayalam playwright C. N. Sreekantan Nair. Nair took the inspiration for this play from the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana. The play is the first of Sreekantan Nair's dramatic trilogy based on the Ramayana, the others are Saketham and Lankalakshmi...
, which is a reworking of Valmiki
Valmiki
Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself. He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e...
's Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
.
The film interprets a story from the Uttara Kanda of the epic poem
Indian epic poetry
Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya . The Ramayana and Mahabharata, originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into many other Indian languages, are some of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth and form part of...
Ramayana, where Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
sends his wife, Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
, to the jungle to satisfy his subjects. Sita is never actually seen in the film, but her virtual presence is compellingly evoked in the moods of the forest and the elements. The film retells the epic from a feminist perspective. It was shot in the interior tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
. The roles of the epic heroes are played by Rama Chenchu
Chenchu
The Chenchus are an aboriginal tribe of the central hill regions of Andhra Pradesh, India. Their traditional way of life has been based on hunting and gathering. The Chenchus speak the Chenchu language, a member of the Telegu branch of the Dravidian language family. In general, the Chenchu...
tribal people, who claim lineage to the mythological Rama. Director Aravindan interweaves the Samkhya
Samkhya
Samkhya, also Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered as the founder of the Samkhya school, although no historical verification is possible...
-Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
philosophical concepts of Prakriti-Purusha
Purusha
In some lineages of Hinduism, Purusha is the "Self" which pervades the universe. The Vedic divinities are interpretations of the many facets of Purusha...
bonds throughout the film.
The film was produced by K. Ravindran Nair under the banner of General Pictures. The film features an original score by classical musician Rajeev Taranath
Rajeev Taranath
Rajeev Taranath is an Indian classical musician who plays the sarod. Taranath is a disciple of Ali Akbar Khan.-Career:...
, cinematography by cinematographer-turned-director Shaji N. Karun
Shaji N. Karun
Shaji Neelakantan Karun is a National Award-winning Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film Piravi won the Caméra d'Or - Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival...
, editing by Ramesan, and art direction by Artist Namboothiri. The film became a major critical success upon its release in 1977, although a few mainstream critics panned it. It is credited with being at the forefront of a trend towards independent filmmaking in South India. The film earned Aravindan the National Film Award for Best Direction.
Plot
The film begins with the journey of RamaRama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
and Lakshmana
Lakshmana
Lakshmana was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the famous epic Ramayana...
to kill Shambuka
Shambuka
Shambuka is, in Hindu mythology, a character in the Ramayana.- Story :'Shambuka, is one of the Chapter in the book "Ramayan Ambedkar to answer many enigmatic problems in Indian History...
– the shudra
Shudra
Shudra is the fourth Varna, as prescribed in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig veda, which constitutes society into four varnas or Chaturvarna. The other three varnas are Brahmans - priests, Kshatriya - those with governing functions, Vaishya - agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders...
who performs penance – but Shambuka's wife pleads for his life, and he is spared. Rama and Lakshmana return to Ayodhya to face Urmila, the spirited wife of Lakshmana. Rama replies to her reproaches for abandoning Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
in the Dandakaranya
Dandakaranya
Dandakaranya is a spiritually significant region in India. It is roughly equivalent to the Bastar District in the central east part of India...
forests, through which they have just journeyed, that the husband of Sita is only a servant of the people of Ayodhya.
The next day, Vasishta arrives to suggest that Rama perform the Ashvamedha
Ashvamedha
The Ashvamedha was one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic religion, described in detail in the Yajurveda...
yaga (the ritual sacrifice of a horse to Agni
Agni
Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...
, the god of fire) but Rama cannot do without his wife by his side. He is averse to taking a second wife, as Vasishta further suggests. The anguish of Rama at this point is juxtaposed with the people of Ayodhya joyously celebrating the harvest.
Bharata
Bharata (Ramayana)
In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Bharata was the second brother of the main protagonist Rama, and the son of Dasaratha and Kaikeyi. Dasaratha was the Emperor of Ayodhya and belonged to the Suryavansha or Solar Dynasty...
, a brother of Rama who had left Ayodhya twelve years ago, returns. He objects to Rama performing the yaga without Sita. Their argument almost culminates in a physical fight, but nature intervenes; the skies open and a cooling rain pours down upon them.
The yaga begins, with Lakshmana accompanying the horse. The horse strays into Valmiki
Valmiki
Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself. He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e...
's ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
(hermitage), where Rama's son Lava
Lava (Ramayana)
Lava or Luv and his twin brother Kusha, were the children of the Lord Rama and his wife Sita, whose story is recounted in the Ramayana. Per that text, he is known as the founder of Lavapuri,that is, the modern day city of Lahore,...
and Kusha
Kusha (Ramayana)
Kusha , in Hindu mythology, was one of the twin sons of Lord Rama and Sita . Born in the Forest after Sita had been banished from Ayodhya, they were educated and trained in military skills and were under the care of Sage Valmiki....
are being brought up. Lava stops the horse and is ready to fight Lakshmana (as the yaga demands). Lakshmana orders that the horse be released, but once again nature takes a hand. Valmiki is strangely moved by what he sees, and he begins to compose the Uttara Rama Charita – the story of Rama.
The horse is led back to Ayodhya, and the ritualistic second stage of the yaga starts. Just then Rama receives the news that Shambuka has resumed his penance, and Lakshmana is despatched to slay the erring shudra. As the ceremony nears completion, Valmiki arrives with Lava and Kusha, but Vasishta debars Valmiki from entering the yagashala. Rama recognises Lava and Kusha as his sons, and takes them to his heart. The joy of Sita, then, is represented in the glorious splendour of nature.
Dénouement
The film ends with an epilogue depicting Rama's last journey, the Mahaprasthana, as he walks into the river with fire in his hand and becomes one with Sita, the all-pervading nature. When asked whether Rama was really committing suicide, Aravindan replied, "Yes... in all probability. That is what I think. However, his death in Sarayu river is not like any other kind of death. It was a Mahaprasthanam – an event of supreme self-sacrifice and purification, leaving everything behind. Everyone dear to him had gone. He had parted from Lakshmana. He was troubled by many guilt feelings – the murder of Shambuka, the unfairness meted out to Sita... Towards the end of the film, this mood prevails – Rama walks into the Sarayu river with the sacrificial fire, bearing everything, including his loneliness, calling out for Sita ... and disappears into the depths of the waters, carrying the sacrificial fire with him into the river is not in RamayanaRamayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
– it is an interpretation. Somehow the part I liked most in the film is this end."
Cast
- Ramdas as RamaRamaRama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
- Venkateswarlu as LakshmanaLakshmanaLakshmana was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the famous epic Ramayana...
- Chinna Pulliah as BharataBharata (Ramayana)In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Bharata was the second brother of the main protagonist Rama, and the son of Dasaratha and Kaikeyi. Dasaratha was the Emperor of Ayodhya and belonged to the Suryavansha or Solar Dynasty...
- Kesava Panicker as ValmikiValmikiValmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself. He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e...
- Krishnan as Vasishta
- Pottiah as LavaLava (Ramayana)Lava or Luv and his twin brother Kusha, were the children of the Lord Rama and his wife Sita, whose story is recounted in the Ramayana. Per that text, he is known as the founder of Lavapuri,that is, the modern day city of Lahore,...
- Rangiah as KushaKusha (Ramayana)Kusha , in Hindu mythology, was one of the twin sons of Lord Rama and Sita . Born in the Forest after Sita had been banished from Ayodhya, they were educated and trained in military skills and were under the care of Sage Valmiki....
- Siva as ShambukaShambukaShambuka is, in Hindu mythology, a character in the Ramayana.- Story :'Shambuka, is one of the Chapter in the book "Ramayan Ambedkar to answer many enigmatic problems in Indian History...
- Sobha Kiran as Urmila
- Annapurna as Shambuka's wife
Themes and analysis
The SamkhyaSamkhya
Samkhya, also Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered as the founder of the Samkhya school, although no historical verification is possible...
-Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
philosophical concepts of Prakriti-Purusha
Purusha
In some lineages of Hinduism, Purusha is the "Self" which pervades the universe. The Vedic divinities are interpretations of the many facets of Purusha...
bonds are used in the film. Prakriti and Purusha, as philosophical concepts, have their genealogy in the Samkhya-Yoga school of Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy
India has a rich and diverse philosophical tradition dating back to ancient times. According to Radhakrishnan, the earlier Upanisads constitute "...the earliest philosophical compositions of the world."...
. In Samkhya thought, Purusha is the Transcendental Self or Pure Consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable, above any experience, and beyond any words or explanation. It remains pure, nonattributive consciousness. Purusha is neither produced nor does it produce. Unlike Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
and like Purva-Mimamsa, Samkhya philosophy emphasises the plurality of the Purushas. Prakriti is the first cause of the universe – of everything except the Purusha, which is uncaused, and accounts for whatever is physical, both matter and force. Through its threefold gunas or characteristics of the physical universe, Prakriti binds Purusha, the self (in the minimal sense of awareness or sentience), which itself is not distinct from Prakriti. A written comentary that throws light on Aravindan's interpretation of the play precedes his film proper. The opening scroll reads, "This film is an interpretation of the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana. Our mythologies and the epics are constantly re-created in retellings. The epic is the basis for this visual interpretation as well. This film deviates from established norms in how it visualises the protagonists and portrays the course of events in the epic." The scroll explains that the film will try to reflect what it calls the epic's adi-sankalpam (original conception) of the theme and the protagonists. It states that "the inner essence of the film is that woman is Prakriti. Ultimately Purusha, here conceived of as the masculine self, dissolves into Prakriti. Ezhuthachan's Adhyathma Ramayana, one of the first Malayalam poems, also views Rama as Purusha and Sita as Prakriti. Aravindan stated in an interview that "C. N. [Sreekantan Nair] had made clear the prakriti-purusha notion in Ramayana". But Aravindan took the extraordinary cinematic step of representing Sita as Prakriti.
Significance of the title
The title alludes to the golden image of Sita that Rama sets by his side while he performs the Ashvamedha yaga. The yaga, a symbol of imperial power, requires that the king who performs it be accompanied by his wife. Since Rama had abandoned Sita twelve years earlier, the kulaguru (family preceptor), Vasishta, advises that he place a golden image of Sita at his side.Differences between the play and Ramayana
Malayalam playwright C. N. Sreekantan NairC. N. Sreekantan Nair
C. N. Sreekantan Nair was a Malayalam playwright. He is probably best known for his Ramayana trilogy - Kanchana Sita, Saketham and Lankalakshmi - based on the epic Ramayana...
wrote his magnum opus play Kanchana Sita
Kanchana Sita (play)
Kanchana Sita is a 1961 play by renowned Malayalam playwright C. N. Sreekantan Nair. Nair took the inspiration for this play from the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana. The play is the first of Sreekantan Nair's dramatic trilogy based on the Ramayana, the others are Saketham and Lankalakshmi...
in 1961. He took the inspiration for this play from the Uttara Kanda (kāṇḍa: chapter) of Ramayana. Uttara Kanda is the seventh and last book of Ramayana. It concerns the final years of Rama, Sita, and Rama's brothers, and is regarded to be a later addition to Valmiki's original story. The play is the first of Sreekantan Nair's dramatic trilogy based on the Ramayana. The others are Saketham and Lankalakshmi. A reworking of Ramayana, the play is about the tragedy of power and the sacrifices demanded by adherence to dharma
Dharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
, including abandoning a chaste wife.
Kanchana Sita was developed by Aravindan, based on the play. The screenplay and dialogues of the film were written by Aravindan himself. The film is conceived differently from both Nair's play and the original Uttara Kanda of Ramayana. If the Uttara Kandas critique of sovereign power is buried in the karmic webs of Rama's life, Nair's play carries a sharply materialistic edge in its critique of Kshatriya
Kshatriya
*For the Bollywood film of the same name see Kshatriya Kshatriya or Kashtriya, meaning warrior, is one of the four varnas in Hinduism...
-Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
ical power. In contrast with both, Aravindan's thematic content is much more directly focused on Rama's inner conflict between moksha (the desire for enlightenment) and artha (the desire for sovereign power). Sita does not appear in the film at all, but is depicted as prakriti, or all-pervading nature, and the different moods of Sita are shown as different aspects of nature. Nair rewrote the final section of Valmiki's Ramayana as a critique of brahminical privilege and political repression. Using Nair's play only a starting point, Aravindan transformed the script according to his interpretation of Indian philosophy and his minimalist aesthetic. He replaced Nair's crisply-articulated exchanges of dialogue with a cinematic meditation on Rama's separation from, and eventual union with Sita, thus carrying the concept of Sita as Prakriti to its visual limit.
Dialogues
The play's main feature is its very eloquent, long, and authoritative dialogues, whereas the film is almost silent. Aravindan explains: "There are some specific reasons for deciding to have sparse dialogues in Kanchana Sita. One, this episode taken from Ramayana is familiar to all. Two, Ramayana is not a supernatural reality for us, as it is ingrained in us. It is therefore not necessary to educate people about the film through lengthy dialogues. C. N. [Sreekantan Nair] had made clear the prakriti-purusha notion in Ramayana. I did not think that Sita should come in the film in the form of a woman. That is why Sita appeared in the film as prakriti and Prakriti is a character in the film. When the emotions of Sita like pain, sadness, joy, and equanimity are manifested through the moods of Prakriti, dialogue becomes redundant. I felt I could make the film without dialogue. Rama committing suicide – (I still feel it was – self immolation) had haunted me very badly. With all these, my Kanchana Sita became very different. Words were required only for very essentials. The dialogues, which I used, were from C. N. [Sreekantan Nair]'s play. The doubt I had then was whether my Rama and Lakshmana (as they were ordinary people) could use such an eloquent Sanskritised language." In another interview, he said, "Dialogues are there to carry on the storyline and make it move. But when it comes to well-known stories, dialogues ceases to be an essential ingredient." Dialogue was, however, included in Kanchana Sita at the end of the movie to discuss the responsibilities of the king.Characterisation
The film significantly differs from all other adaptations of Ramayana in the characterisation of the central characters, including Rama and Lakshmana. The characters are humanised, contrary to the way divine characters from Indian mythology are usually depicted in visual media. Rama has a pot belly, while Lakshmana has pockmarks on his face. In an interview, Aravindan stated, "Our sculptures are large in size and exude strength and vitality, which is absent in murals. The Rama of Kanchana Sita exudes the strength and vitality of our sculptures. He is not just a plain frontal image. The wandering tribals we encounter here and there with their medicines also share this quality. I enquired and found that these people are settled in villages near the Godavari River. Apart from this they also believe that they belong to the same race. That is why I cast two of them in my film."Similarily, Aravindan deliberately did not give a superhuman quality to Rama and Lakshmana. Only when they interact with Nature do they rise to the levels of God and go beyond the ordinary. In Aravindan's own words, "otherwise they would have been the same as anybody else." Diametrically opposed to this, Valmiki is given an appropriate form and beauty.
Production
The film was produced by K. Ravindran Nair, who produced some of the most significant films that put Malayalam cinema on the world map. His productions also include memorable films of Aravindan, such as ThampuThampu
Thampu is a highly acclaimed Malayalam film written and directed by G. Aravindan. Bharath Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, V. K. Sriraman, Jalaja the artistes of the Great Chitra Circus form the cast. The film deals with the roving street circus of Kerala. It is shot in black and white in a direct documentary...
(1978), Kummatty (1979), Esthappan (1980), and Pokkuveyil (1981).
Casting
In Kanchana Sita, the roles of the epic heroes like are played by AdivasiAdivasi
Adivasi is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India...
s (tribal members) from Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
known as the Rama Chenchus
Chenchu
The Chenchus are an aboriginal tribe of the central hill regions of Andhra Pradesh, India. Their traditional way of life has been based on hunting and gathering. The Chenchus speak the Chenchu language, a member of the Telegu branch of the Dravidian language family. In general, the Chenchu...
(also known as Koyas), who claim that they are the descendants of the Ikshvaku clan, to which Rama belonged. Aravindan's idea was not to use conventional actors, but to find people who had reached the state of awareness that the role required. Rama Chenchu healers play the central roles of Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Lava, and Kusha. Shambukha was played by a wayside tapasvi, while a destitute woman acted in the role of his wife. The credited cast of the film includes Ramdas, Venkateswarlu, Chinna Pulliah, Kesava Panicker, Krishnan, Pottiah, Rangiah, Siva, Sobha Kiran, and Annapurna. The name of each village chief is Ramdas. The tribal who acted as Rama is also a village chief. Director John Abraham gave voice for Valmiki's character. When asked how he got the idea to use tribals for the film, Aravindan said, "These tribals come to Trivandrum to sell herbal medicine. They are extremely intelligent. In fact, the tribals inhabiting the nine villages around the Godavari river in Andhra are supposed to have the highest I.Q. among Indian tribals. The tribe I selected is known as the Rama Chenchus. They claim to belong to the dynasty of Rama. Physically, I feel, they fit the description given by Valmiki." This experiment in casting resulted in several difficulties during production. A precise detailing had to be done because most of the actors could only react to demonstrated instructions. Communication with the actors was carried out with the help of Manohar Dutt, painter and lecturer at the College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad. Dutt also accompanied Aravindan and his associate, journalist and filmmaker Chintha Ravi
Chintha Ravi
K. Ravindran, better known by his pen-name Chintha Ravi , was an Indian writer, journalist, film critic and film director.-Biography:...
, on a preliminary trip to Andhra Pradesh to finalise the locations.
Filming
The film was shot in colour in less than three weeks during November and December 1976, entirely in Andhra Pradesh, partly on the banks of the Godavari, partly at Undavalli in VijayawadaVijayawada
Vijayawada is the third largest city in Andhra Pradesh, India, located on the banks of the Krishna River and bounded by the Indrakiladri Hills on the West and the Budameru River on the North. The city is located in the Krishna District, about from the state capital Hyderabad.Vijayawada literally...
, and in the Vicarabad
Vicarabad
Vikarabad or Vicarabad is a town and Muncipality in Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh in India. It was named after the forth Amir of Paigah Vikar, prime minister of Hyderabad and Berar...
forest belt in Telengana. Aravindan abandoned the typical alternation in setting of mythological films and dance dramas, including Sreekantan Nair's play, by moving Rama's story into the landscape Adivasis, imagining Ayodhya in the forest. Its places are forest caves, its streets are tracks in the wilderness, and its Sarayu
Sarayu
The Sarayu is a river that flows through the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This river is of ancient significance, finding mentions in the Vedas and the Ramayana. The Sarayu forms at the confluence of the Karnali and Mahakali in Bahraich District...
river is the Godavari river winding through rural Andhra Pradesh. Aravindan identified locations 160 kilometres (99.4 mi) away from Rajahmundry
Rajahmundry
Rajahmundry is a city and municipal corporation of the Andhra Pradesh state in India. It is located east of the state capital, Hyderabad, on the banks of the River Godavari. Known as the Cultural Capital, Rajahmundry is noted for its intense Veda culture and intellect...
, along the expanse of Godavari river and its ribbed red earth banks. Cinematographer-turned-director Shaji N. Karun
Shaji N. Karun
Shaji Neelakantan Karun is a National Award-winning Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film Piravi won the Caméra d'Or - Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival...
wields the camera. Karun has been a recurring collaborator in Aravindan's films. He was assisted by popular cinematographer S. Kumar who was in his early days of career.
Filming took place at the time when the Emergency was declared in India. Police were combing the entire area around Rajamundhry in their hunt for the Maoist People's War Group. Members of the production team were interrogated by the police several times because they looked different from the natives.
The film was completed using simple devices such as table fans to rustle the leaves. A few unexpected things happened for the good while shooting the climax scene. For instance, a rare and unexpected early morning mist on the banks of Godavari made the whole scene ethereal.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, but is widely regarded as a landmark film in Indian cinema history. It is credited with the formation of a new trend towards independent filmmaking in South India. The HinduThe Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
described Kanchana Sita as one of the most poetic films in Malayalam. Scholar V. Rajakrishnan noted that Aravindan had not fully considered the implications of locating Rama's story in an Adivasi community. Rajakrishnan pointed out that the rigid economy of expression and the subdued acting styles, which appear to render all dialogue artificial, reduce the element of human drama that is so prominent in Sreekantan Nair's play. Poet and scholar Ayyappa Panicker views Sita's absence as typical of Aravindan's style, in which there is a conscious, meticulous effort "not to communicate in order to communicate". Panicker described Aravindan's expressive style using his own concept of antarasannivesa, or the poetics of interiorisation. "Sita is not a woman, or an individual, but an eternal concept in the film", Panicker said in an interview. The Hindu critic Sashi Kumar stated, "In the film, Aravindan synthesises into a consummate whole his marginality principle and his anthropomorphic contemplation of nature." Vidyarthy Chatterjee of The Economic Times
The Economic Times
The Economic Times is an English-language Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. The Economic Times was started in 1961. It is the most popular and widely read financial daily in India, read by more than 8 lakh people...
said, "Visually stunning in many passages and using sound in such a manner as to make for heightened aesthetic pleasure, Kanchana Sita is a milestone that has unfortunately been bypassed by many who would have done better to focus on its innovative elements". Yves Thoraval said, "Kanchana Sita is a visually dazzling film illustrating this long mythological episode potentially rich in dialogue but of which G. Aravindan has chosen to make a non realist, virtually silent and contemplative film by calling up a tribal population to portray the mythological characters".
The National Film Award for Best Direction was given to Aravindan for "the film's courageous and uncompromising exploration of an ancient epic theme through a pronouncedly new cinematic language, for making the camera speak more eloquently than the introspective characters of the Ramayana, for projecting against the vast backdrop of nature, for matching profound philosophical ideas with astonishing evocations of the beauties of the physical world".
External links
- Kanchana Sita at the Malayalam Movie Database