Silappadikaram

Just reread (not really) Silappadikaram and honestly it is still a very modern netflixy sob-story, with its own sob-titles/cantos or kāthais.

Rich, spoilt way’lay’ing d00d blows up his marriage for a lay-dancer, discovers financial planning only after chapter 11 bankruptcy (unlike DMK Karunanidhi¹, who did all the debauchery and totally laughed all the way to his dirty hoard for next 1000+ generations), goes to Madurai w/ his wife’s anklet like it is a start-up pivot.

The state executes him w/o basic due diligence; enraged heroine wifey walks in with receipts, proves the justice system failed, & literally bloody burns down the whole fucking city. Oh man.

~900s CE scribed Tamil true-fiction/classic says: marry well, know the lay-of-the-land, philander safely especially when the rubber hits the hittable, audit jewellery properly & never underestimate an angry woman with documentation.

Oneliner synopsis: One may be a total social retard and thrive, but without a suitable fire-retardant, he is toast.

Manimekalai

Just reread (um, not really) Manimekalai and it is basically the ancient (supposedly) Tamil version of someone inheriting everyone else’s drama and – sadly choosing instead – psycho-therapy, ethics, and of all things, Buddhism. Woe man.

A dancer’s daughter is expected to continue the dravidian family brand, a prince becomes dangerously obsessed with her, and the whole city behaves like ‘romantic pursuit’ is a valid governance model – reminds one of MK Stalin in his lay-days², doesn’t it? So much for the ‘lay’ered narrative.

Anyway. Manimekalai says absolutely not to that period MK Stalin, gets divine relocation services, receives a magical begging bowl with unlimited food distribution capacity (of course, the substance of the wet-dreams of all shades of shady Dravidian politicos), and turns her life into a social welfare programme with metaphysics attached.

Meanwhile, the plot keeps thickening & pausing for debates on karma, rebirth, hunger, desire, compassion, and why everyone should bloody well stop making their personal cravings, society’s problem. It starts like a sequel to Silappadikaram, then becomes part courtroom, part philosophy seminar, part anti-horny public service announcement. What the fuck.

‘Ancient’ Tamil literature really said: your parents’ scandal is not your destiny, male attention is not a career path, and the best revenge is feeding the poor while achieving detachment. Whatever.

Oneliner synopsis: A superbowl can also be a supper bowl, as long as it isn’t lost supper – so supperess your desires, you retards!

Full disclosure:

The ‘inspiration’ for the above uncalled-for quickies came from:

Warning: Depending on how my fellow 7½s receive & react to this kind of irreverently respectful commentary (or nonsense, if you will) on the holy-cows of Tamil pride – this scholarly effort of synopsizing and adapting things for this crazed GenZ fellows, may or may not continue…

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1. “Karunanidhi has long dominated Tamil Nadu’s politics. He is the unquestioned leader of the DMK, a regional Tamil party with no obvious ideology other than support for Karunanidhi and a desire to remain in power.” ↩︎
2. “Stalin had something of a thuggish reputation in the 1970s, including alleged involvement in multiple sex scandals. (Many in Chennai still tell stories, perhaps apocryphal, of pretty girls being plucked off the streets and handed over to Stalin for his amusement.) He matured and shed this image in the late 1980s…” THE SONS ALSO RISE: KARUNANIDHI KEEPS POWER IN THE FAMILY ↩︎