Kabali (Tamil) 2 Tamil Movie Download
Melisa Niederhaus
I saw Kabali! It was SO GOOD! Okay, the second half lost track of itself a little bit, and there were some character bits that could have been better, but overall it just had so much more depth and excitement and energy than the other movies I have seen lately!
I talk about this more in my book, but Indian film has always always done that. Back when the British were in charge, it was all about sneaking in pro-Independence messages, and then it went on to talking about the License Raj and the Emergency and all sorts of other taboos, without really obviously talking about them, because then the censors will shut you down. And, of course, the southern film industries go much farther and are much braver in being directly political than the northern industries are.
So, before writing this review I did a quick scan through JSTOR looking for journal articles on Malaysia, and a quick dip into wikipedia and some news sources to get some up to date info. I know there is a lot I am missing, feel free to fill me in in the comments, but here is the basic outline I can see so far.
These native Malays received advantages in buying land and housing, founding companies, getting government jobs, basically every area of life. Some government contracts will only go to Malay owned business, only companies with a 30% Malay ownership are allowed on the stock exchange, and so on and so on.
These policies were wildly successful in upending the power structure in place during colonialism, making the native Malay population quickly the wealthiest and most educated one. On the face of it, this was a good system for re-dressing the wrongs of colonialism. However, there are two huge problems with it.
First, these policies are still in place to some degree years and years after the initial inbalance they were meant to address has been fixed. Secondly, and more importantly, while there was a proportion of the non-Malay population that had an unfair advantage during British rule, there was a much larger proportion that was suffering under the British and has continued to suffer under local rule, with these laws just serving to keep them further beaten down.
The avenues of hope for these populations tend to be religious. When traditional secular routes to power are closed, religion can take a primary and potent role in community organizing. I found an interesting article from the late 80s talking about how Hinduism developed differently in Malaysia, more based on small local shrines reflecting local miracles, than on huge temples and formal priests and so on. And that there was a bit of a divide between Hinduism as it was practiced by the lower class manual labors and by the more educated upper classes. With that background, I am guessing the current temple demolition movement by the Malay government is partly a move towards an Islamification of the country, but also an effort to cut off a means of moral support and organization for the lower class Tamil community?
The turning point is at a graduation ceremony for the high school, when Rajini sir invites the students to ask him any question they want. This scene feels very familiar from fan meetings and Q&A sessions actors hold in real life, really the whole way Rajini interacts with the younger characters feels very kindly and paternal in a way similar to how he interacts with his young fans. And definitely the younger characters (especially Jeeva) work as wish fulfillment for the young Rajini fans who wish they could get a chance to serve their idol.
I was a little frustrated with this at first, that Rajinikanth would miraculous discover that not only his wife survived, but she successfully gave birth and he has a daughter. I wanted the weight of a sacrifice and loss on his character. And I wanted the film to not be afraid of the unhappy ending.
The second half is kind of abrupt, moving from big action scenes to a sudden focus on this dreamy journey to find his wife. And then, bam! Back to action! As he easily defeats his enemies and takes control of the whole city. It felt weird watching it, just as I was settling in for the human drama there would be an action scene, and just as I was getting into the action, we were back to the human drama. And it felt odd that after all these messages of despair and loss, in the end, he wins all his fights and gets his family back.
But ultimately, it was all a set-up to trick you in the end. He needed to win on his own merit, he needed to have everything, he needed to be ready to move on to new challenges, because he needed to have something to lose. And just when it all looks good again, when he is sitting with his wife, looking at their two beautiful daughters, when he is listening to young people talking about their problems with lack of economic opportunity and possibilities and considering how he can move his crusade onto a new level, we see one of those young boys he tried to help in his school, sitting in a jail, being pulled out and handed a gun by the police. And then we see him walking into the crowd at the celebration and hear a gunshot as the screen goes to black.
Im so glad that you see how similar the situation is to the black lives matter movement in America, I have been seeing parallels to both worlds for a long time. My biggest fear is we are 2 decades away from people being killed just for being outside.
The coat has a local story reference too. When they first came to Malaysia, the Indian labourers wore veshti while the Ceylonese who mostly came as clerks wore suits as dictated by the british. And they saw themselves as better off than the south Indians. There were a lot of put downs and some still exists now and that is coming up out reactions to the movie too.
yogi represents a lot of strong Malaysian indian women who are independent and go around achieving things. Something that india still lacks but in generally we are strong women who dress up how we want. I loved that ranjith got all that and represented us so well. And that scene (the pic of yogi with a gun in rajnis face) is my favourite for Rajni shows so much emotions there. First it was shock, realisation, confirmation, joy and then most importantly proud that his daughter is saving him and that she is one strong women just like her mother!!!
One thing that I did not see above is about the book Rajini was reading in his introduction scene, the book is among the most celebrated contemporary Dalit literature.
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