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THYAGABHOOMI / THE LAND OF SACRIFICE |
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Sambhu Sastry is portrayed as
the Gandhi of Tamil Nadu, sitting on a dais spinning a charkha. The film
includes documentary footage of Mahatma Gandhi. It opens with Harijans waiting
in front of a closed temple during a cyclone. Sastry is punished for sheltering
them and he goes to Madras. He thereafter, together with the Harijan Nallan,
embarks on Gandhian social uplift programmes
including picketing liquor shops. The main plot focuses on daughter Savithri,
married to the evil Sridharan who prefers to live in 'Western' luxury in
Calcutta and mistreating his wife. She
sues for the restoration of her 'marital rights'. She loses the case, but her
husband sees the light and becomes a nationalist. In the end, Savithri and her
husband are imprisoned for disregarding the court's verdict. Pioneering the
integration of melodrama with a symbol-laden political idiom later adopted by
the DMK film, it has many scenes that resonate with local political meanings:
the shot of Harijans standing outside the temple relates to the Temple Entry
movement in the state; and footage of the Congress volunteers's march (which
briefly caused the film to be banned). |
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