Kayamkulam Kochunni

Kayamkulam Kochunni is Kerala’s own Robin Hood. He is believed to have lived in the 19^th 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?