Kayamkulam Kochunni is
Kerala’s own Robin Hood. He is believed to have lived in the 19th
century and his tomb is still preserved in good condition at the Pettah Juma
Masjid in Thiruvananthapuram. There is a shrine dedicated to him in
Kozhencherry, Kerala. A new Malayalam movie was released last week based on his
legends and whatever history is available.
This is not a review of
the movie though I watched it yesterday with much interest. The cinematography
is excellent and the landscapes refuse to leave your memory long after the
movie is over. What fascinated me really is the theme of exploitation of the
poor by the rich, the powerless by the powerful.
“Who makes the rules?”
Kochunni asks at one part of the movie. He gives the answer too: “The Brahmins
make the rules for their own benefits. Why should we obey them?”
Kochunni becomes a
brigand. The social system makes him one, rather. Certain higher caste people
made use of him for their personal aggrandizement and then they conspired to
eliminate him. His fiancée is made an outcast as she belongs to a low caste and
hence was forbidden to marry a man from a different religion. Kochunni was a
Muslim.
Kochunni dedicates his
life to the service of the marginalised people. He plunders from the rich and
gives to the poor. He rewrites the rules written by the rich in order to
exploit the poor. “You do the cultivation and the harvesting, yet you starve
and they enjoy the fruits of your labour,” he tells the poor people. However,
none of them has the power to change the system. The system always belongs to
the rich and the powerful. Hence Kochunni becomes an outlaw.
We now live in a
democratic system in which the power belongs to the citizens. Does it really?
No, not at all. The citizen’s power stops at voting a candidate. After that the
leaders make the policies. If the leader has his own personal agenda, as we now
have in India, many sections of citizens become victims. Just like in Kochunni’s
time.
The movie left me wishing
for a better leader in the country. Is there anyone emerging from the darkness
that has enveloped the country?
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