Cricketer Ashwin Bats For Film 'Lubber Pandhu', Receives Unkind Bouncer In Return From Dravidian Ecosystem

At around the same time when the entire country was going ga-ga over Ravichandran Ashwin for his phenomenal all-round performance in the Chennai Test against Bangladesh, a bunch of people were taking vile potshots at him. 

As it happened, these gaggle of voices were his own Tamil people's. 

So what did Ashwin do to be at the receiving end of the Dravidian scorn while the rest of the nation was celebrating him? 

Well, he put out a post on X praising the new Tamil film Lubber Pandhu (Rubber Ball).

Yes, seriously. The nation's second highest wicket-taker in Test matches seemed to be mighty impressed with the latest Tamil film, a movie set in a village with rubber ball local cricket as the larger backdrop to the story.

The day after the Chennai Test against Bangladesh ended, Ashwin on his X timeline praised the film to the hilt, and in passing also mentioned that it was quite unlike other cricket-based movies in Tamil which "often tend to deviate from the core and deliver what they wish to convey and that’s exactly why “Lubber Pandhu” struck a special chord for me." (sic).

Now, as you can see, Ashwin did not take the name of any other Tamil movie. The articulate offie was just making a general observation as a film buff. Also, if you had been following Tamil movies, you would generally concur with his views as many cricket-based Tamil movies have erred on the side of trying to be 'messagey' or deviated from the cricketing idea and focused on assumed humour.

Tamil Cinema And Cricket, An Uncomfortable Pair

The examples are many. The 2011 film Potta Potti (initially named Patta Patti), featuring none other than Indian international cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh is a good case in point. This energetic cricket contest film in a small village lost its way in trying to be funny. Then there is the 2012 movie Dhoni, starring Prakash Raj and Radhika Apte in the leads.

This was your typical father-son confrontation story with the latter bent on a sporting career while the dad wants him to focus on studies. It is the oldest trope in sports-themed flicks. Though its heart was in the right place, the cricketing again got side-tracked because of excessive emotions.

The 2018 movie Kanaa, which was about the struggles of a woman cricketer, was again filled with cliches of this genre, and made worse by over-the-top sentiments targeted for your lachrymal gland. The 2007 lark of a film 600028, a cult hit, which was about Chennai street cricket, is also worth mentioning. It had a sequel in Chennai 600028 2 (2016) which lacked the original’s spunky mischief and cheekiness.

And there was also Jeeva (2014), starring Vishnu Vishal in the lead. It is not clear whether the film was a hit or not when it released. The film was again a generic offering about the struggles of an aspiring cricketer. In the story, his progress to the top is allegedly stopped by casteist Brahminical forces which dominate the state and national cricket administration. 

Whether you agree with the central premise of the film or not, the fact is this Suseenthiran-directed film was a shoddy and crude offering, actually no different from the gross offerings of Mohan G (a Vanniyar director known for his caste-centred films). Jeeva's problem was not that it targeted Brahminical forces. But it did so in the most caricatured manner possible, in a way that totally diluted the supposed art in a cinematic product.

Jeeva Was Bad Cinema 

Even if you, for argument’s sake, accept the film's premise, you'd still wince at the way it was presented on the screen. The ostensible villains wear their caste practically on their sleeve and speak in no uncertain terms about their inclinations.

For instance, a cricket administrator, with a long and prominent naamam on his forehead, you are supposed to take him for a nominal Srinivasan (never mind the fact that Srinivasan in real life is a vibhuti-kumkum wearing Iyer, and not a thiruman sporting Iyengar), hugs a young cricketer and gropes his shoulder as if to figure out whether he is a poonal-wearing Brahmin. It was obscenely farcical.  

But Jeeva is held up — again not surprisingly — as some sort of cinema verite by the Dravidian sections for obvious reasons. And they also decided that this was the film that Ashwin's post on X was against. It was a typical, unthinking, knee-jerky conclusion that the Dravideologues are wont to arrive at.

Ashwin, to repeat, merely said that the previous cricket movies in Tamil took a detour from their sporting core. It is something borne out by facts. But to think that he was making a pointed reference to Jeeva is ludicrous. This overarching assumption is based on the fact Ashwin is, by birth, a Brahmin. This extremely bad-faith line of thinking also commits the error of facile profiling. But with the Dravidian sections, such essential bigotry is par for the course.

Make no mistake about it, whether Ashwin had it in mind or not, Jeeva was bad cinema. The way it presented its politics was a disservice to it. 

Dravidian Brigade Lets Down A National Hero

Anyway, all manner of besmirching terms were let loose on Ashwin for his post and the Dravideologues arrived at the larger conclusion that cricket continues to be in the vice-like hold of upper caste hegemons. The biggest irony is still the fact that cricket in Tamil Nadu is actually in their own grip for a long time now.

N Srinivasan is known to be a closet DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) man, with strong connections to the party's first family. But more importantly, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is headed by Dr Ashok Sigamani, the son of the senior DMK minister K Ponmudi.

Just the other day, in the aftermath of chess and cricketing victories, we had written about Chennai sporting heroes Ashwin and Vishwanathan Anand thus: "But in this hour of glory, it is also sobering to point out that while these sportsmen even when bringing so much glory to their city, they may still be considered outsiders by the prevailing dominant Dravidian sentiments which sees only their caste and language as the deciding markers."

Not in our dreams we expected our words to turn icily prophetic just the next day. But it is a vindication that does not make us any happy.