More than a couple of folks have requested me to write about ‘Veiled BDSM in Tamil Movies’. Let me say that I want to just call it good old slapping for in most Tamil movies it does not go way beyond this. What was really obvious is that I don’t remember much. So it isn’t going to be all as comprehensive as a TVTropes list. But then, TVTropes Lists are what they are as they have multiple contributors. So please feel free to pitch in your own examples and make the examples grow.
The Grade A Slap: This is the most romantic of slaps. Man slaps woman, she laughs, he laughs, song, dance. I believe Barathiraja movies had a significant set of these instances. However, memory escapes me. Help.
The Grade B Slap: This does not make her fall for him immediately. She broods. Significantly on how manly he is. Goes all out to marry him. Example 1: Mannan Example 2: I feel Amman Koil Kizhakalea where Vijaykanth ties a Thaali around Radha’s neck is a very similar scenario. Somehow I feel it qualifies. Example 3: Whipping in Maaveeran.
The Grade C Slap: This slap is delivered by an older actor to his wife. It is implied that he should have done this long back.
Example 1: Manathil Uruthi Vendum. Suhasini meets the parents of the groom (the swarasyamaana writer dude). The mother (in law) seems strict but positive about her son marrying a divorcee. The father (in law) does not seem to give two hoots about it anyway. Suhasini donates a kidney to her Ex and the lady wants to call the whole thing off. Cue, one tight slap from her husband to put her in her place. All is well.
Example 2: No idea about the movies name, however I remember it to be a Visu (or Visu type) movie. The woman is a tyrant and keeps torturing everyone around. At the last scene after all hell had broken loose she tells her husband this. “It is all your fault. I did fault #1, appovea chappunu oru arai, would I have continued? I did fault #2, appovea chappunu oru arai, would I have continued? I did fault #3, appovea chappunu oru arai, would I have continued? You never hit me. Now tell me whose fault is it?” At the end of which he obligingly renders the “Chappunu oru arai”.
TV Tropes just aces with the following very interesting Articles.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RapePortrayedAsRedemption http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticizedAbuse http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MillsAndBoonProse (This is not related to BDSM. But you really have to read Dave Barry’s Parody version given in the Literature section 😉 )
Feminine Tosh 
Enna Rahini, how can you forget this? Kodi parakkuthu scene – Rajnikant slaps Amala when she keeps declaring her love to him – is a classic grade A slap. Yes, it is a Bharathiraja film I believe.
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Another grade, if you will:
Grade D: Girl loves hero, keep nagging him about it. Hero doesn’t give two hoots about it. One day, girl shouts at someone who is very ‘respectable’ according to the hero or nags a little too much or just for the heck of it, Hero slaps girl, then she cries and declares her love for him – which she had been doing for decades – and NOW, hero ‘understands’ her love.
Example 1: Paruthiveeran
Example 2: Aravaan – this could be called Grade D-1, since this isn’t about declaring love, but about having sex. But it’s the same thing. She wants to have sex because they need an heir, what did you think?
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Rahini, I don’t remember enough about Tamil movies to add to this list, though I have seen quite a few. Even Muthal Mariyathai, for all its maturity otherwise had a termagant for a wife, the poor, noble, put-upon husband, and one final scene where he finally tells her off and she goes away shame-faced.
I’ve always found Bhagyaraj’s films to be very regressive in its treatment of women too.
I can give you countless examples of your graded slaps from Hindi and Malayalam, if you wish, though. 🙂
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I’d like to add to that Grade D mentioned by Madhu: The movie Pistha where Karthik uses a whip (IIRC) on Nagma, to “teach her how to behave with elders.” Then there is this Sathyaraj film, I think “Maaman Magal” with a similar situation. And then, is the Grade A referring mainly to “16 Vayathinile”?
Another ‘long-pending’ slap comes up, once again IIRC, in the Madhavan-starrer “Priyasaki,” I guess.
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More:
Thooral ninnu pochu: When Sulakshana tells Bhagyaraj – quite practically, I thought – that he should marry someone else so that there are no more issues within the two families. And Slaaaaap! Explanation – He loves her and only her. He is Yekapathniviradhan pa, how dare the heroine say that he should marry someone else? What grade would it fall under?
Abhiyum Naanum: I wouldn’t call it a normal scenario. This is an over-excited, over-protective dad slapping the mother, thinking that she has harmed (however inadvertently) their child. But, RadhaMohan’s movies in general have relatable female characters. The stories might be cliched to the core and eye-rolling preachy but the men and the women in his universe are normal humanbeings. So, I was shocked by this scene. Ofcourse, the father after realizing the mistake, tells the mother ‘slap me once, if you want’ (!) This slap is something I couldn’t swallow at all.
Mariyaan: Features a slap after the death of a friend – the slap given to the hroine by the hero to ‘ease’ the pain of his heart.
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Madhu: Barathiraja and his disciple seem to top the list, don’t they? Rekha slaps Satyaraj in Kadalora Kavithagal.
Anu: Oh, Please do bring the Malayalam examples, but with a small background on what the original crime that earns the slap is.
Kamal and Meena in Avvai Shanmuki, for comparing dancers with prostitutes.
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@Anu: IIRC Mudhal Mariyadhai has the husband getting attracted and attached to the another girl mianly because the wife is the way she is. I think he slaps or kicks (I don’t remember very clearly) her during one of the arguments where she bad mouths her father. By that time even we want to plug her mouth. It is not the usual grade C slap. Probably the only bharathiraja flick where my blood didn’t boil for the kick/slap. It is not the I-am-the-man kind of slap that usually happens in such movies. If not for the fact that it is the usual vazhukkivizhuntha pennukku vaazhkai type backstory, IMO, it would have been a beautiful story. Yes, yes, there is still no need for that slap. That is definitely wrong.
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Rahini, I finally followed you here from BR’s blog…and what a smackingly great post to land on! 😀
I’ve watched just a handful of Tamil movies, so can’t contribute on that front, but I have a doozy of an example for Grade A Slap from a Hindi film (dubbed Telegu film actually) – the 1991 Sridevi, Chiranjeevi starrer, Aadmi aur Apsara. Sri plays the apsara who finds aadmi Chiranjeevi worthy of love after he slaps her for recklessly endangering (or so he mistakenly believes) the lives of some children at his school. And then – they sing a song about the awesomeness of the slap. I kid you not.
I couldn’t find the video of just the song, but here’s a link to the movie. Watch from the 1:26:30 mark to 1:31:23 mark. The song is “tumne is tarah mara, de gaya maza marana tumhara”!
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Rahini, I went looking for the Jayaram/Mohanlal slaps, but some of those films have been erased from my mind, possibly because they were so egregious. I’m still trying to remember the whys – (watched them a long time ago, and was revolted then, and I honestly don’t feel like reliving those memories) but offhand I can remember Swapnalokathe Balabhaskaran, where he’s married the girl under false pretences, and when she finally gets mad at him and decides to walk out, there is this huge argument; finally, she tells him she isn’t going to just make things easy for him and she wants to see how he will live in peace with anyone else after ruining her life. Slap! (Around the 9,30 mark or so…)
Like Shalini (who, by the way, posted an example that made my eyeballs roll under the desk, and the thump you heard was that of my jaw hitting the floor!) I can also add myriad examples from Hindi – one from Hum Aapke Hain Kaun where Bindu is the childless shrew, who is more interested in the dahej her niece can bring with her than the girl itself;then, later, when they are trying to get Mohnish Behl married off, she brings up her niece again and says Bachchon ka kya, pal jaate hai and her poor until-then-downtrodden husband slaps her saying (to effect) that that is probably why God didn’t give them any children.
Many melodramatic scenes later, at the end of the movie, Bindu appears again – gone are the chiffons and sleeveless blouses, and hair in ghosla, replaced now by kanjeevaram sari, long jooda, and lots of jasmine flowers… and she is heavily pregnant. Who knew that one only needed to be slapped to become pregnant??
(Will come up with more when egregious examples when I’m in the mood to search for them without throwing up.)
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Very similar to Shalini’s example, is the Kathi slap. Samantha falls in love with Vijay after he accidentally slaps her. Right after the slap (we are expected to laugh and say ‘how cute’ for his apologu, it is a youth and mass film after all), she comes to him to ask for a favor: slap someone on her behalf, because he has a very strong hand. And on that auspicious note, their love begins.
Another example for grade D
The slap is around the 1:38 mark. Vijaykant slaps Meera Jasmine because she dared to tell her father that Vijaykant wants to marry her, which is of course a lie, it is she who loves him and not the other way round (naturally, again a mass film).
Rahini: You should give me the Best Researcher award, I actually googled ‘Tamil film slaps’. And guess what, we get so, so, so many videos. 😛
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Madhu: Ah, all this is proving to be so much fun. I had stopped watching mainstream movies and have obviously missed a whole lot.
Planning to start a stalker dude thread soon. So get ready.
😀
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Like @Shalini, I too came here from BR”s blog. This was fun. Sometime ago BR put up a separate post by one of the ‘commenters’ on “Misogyny in Rajini movies” . For the sheer volume/categorisation of eg:, it ranks up there with that post which i loved…
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Rahini, reg: But admit it. It is your embarrasment about commenting in pink-colored blogs, isn’t it?
i checked out a lot of your posts – loved the thangamakan one LOL all the way – even the * forbidden for the boys * ones :D. Reading the post and comments here, it hit me that Your blog looks more like an all girls club . commenting there makes me feel like getting admitted to a women’s college or breaking in to a women’s hostel or something :). i feel very shy and embarassed. Thrilling and exciting for sure, but embarrassing nonetheless. but i would try to get over my embarassment and post some comments on this thread soon enough all right?.
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I would love that. I promise to make the topics slightly gender neutral (If it would make any difference to you)
Once you do get used to it, I am sure you will like it here.
🙂
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I was going through your Menstruation post the other day, to show it to a friend, and I suddenly realized most of us lurking around here are women!
LOLing over MANK’s comment now.
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It isn’t just him, Anu. Loads of guys find it difficult to comment here. The number of female commenters is one reason. Pink is the other.
Let us see if he keeps his promise and let us see if other men are able to follow.
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Rahini, here we go
The Grade D Slap: Husband slapping wife to make her confess . which is followed by her abandonment by husband.
Rahman slapping geetha in puthu puthu arthangal- after she gives false news of his retirement in the papers, geetha is posessive to the point of obsession and can’t bear to share him with the rest of the world. A slap fest follows to extract confession- much of them (thankfully) off screen
Watch it from 5:25 onwards
Jayaram slapping Abhirami in Njangal santhushtaranu- Abhirami gives fake news to channels that her husband Jayaram(a police commissioner) is dead , only because he fails to make an appointed date with her because he was occupied with work.she is pretty strong willed you know. A media circus is going on outside jayaram’s house when he return home.Jayaram suspects it is abhirami. A slap fest follows – what follows is less a slap fest more of a third degree police style which is seen to be believed- to extract confession- this time in the full view of friends and family including abhirami’s father who is DIG for god’s sake – and All he has to say is that she deserves it if she commited the crime.Her spirited confession follows.Abandonment follows.
watch this from 9:40 onwards.try and watch the film in full if you can Rahini, this the most misogynistic gem i have ever seen 🙂
More such cases
Mammootty slapping sasikala in Padheyam – she betrays Revathi – a revolutionary and the daughter of mamooty’s guru- to the police who was been kept hidden by her husband mammootty.
reason :Jealosy and fear of abandonment
slapping follows, confession follows.Abandonment follows exactly in that order
Got you the tamil version
Ok this much for now to keep the faith . more to come when time and memory permits , alright 🙂
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Ah, the encyclopedia is here. Honored.
😀
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Madhu Long time no see. Hoping for some nice comments from you. Missed you loads. 😀
MANK: I will see the videos and get back pretty soon.
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Rahini, he,he,he,…encyclopedia eh ?, good one 🙂
And take heart, this isnt just limited to indian films this is an international phenomenon., watch the the golden age of Broad slapping. compiled from american films over the ages. , you gonna enjoy this. 🙂
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Thank you so much, MANK.
I may have to admit that it would be a couple of days before I can type out a proper reply. But let the examples roll in.
The more data I have the better I can analyse. 🙂
I would request you to keep an eye open for the loosu ponnu too. (If you aren’t all eyes for the loosu ponnus already). I don’t know when I can manage to get that post up. But I am working on it.
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Oh, and you are actually invited to every post. Not just this one.
Though I would understand that you are much too coy to comment on .. Certain posts.
Do you want a thaamboola thattu sent across or what? 🙂
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Rahini, send me no thaamboola thattu please, i am not a chewer :D. If you will, send me a ‘ idli vada thattu’. , i am crazy about vadas 🙂
i would love to comment on your other posts – have read a few of them – and have a few more ideas for the film slaps.just that i have been hard pressed for time these days. its been all work and work. havent been to Brangan’s blog for days now.i have been keeping away, don’t want to get in to any intense debates. Ok promise to comment on other posts as soon i am free..
And look forward to your post on loosu ponnus. youre quite an expert on that subject, i believe :). And no, am not all eyes for the loosu ponnus , that’s not yet i pride myself of having better taste in ponnus 🙂
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I was just kidding about your comment on not being expressly invited over. No pressure.
I am a bit busy here myself.
Yeah I am a bit of a loosu ponnu ph.d. More on that later. 🙂
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MANK: The links you posted reminded me of quite a lot of KB slap moments. There are 2 slap scenes in Manathil Uruthi Vendum. Both are wives being slapped by husbands. And Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal has 2 slap scenes and both are wives being slapped by husbands. And I think there must be lots more
Breakdown is as follows:
1) Suhasini being slapped by abusive husband – Meant to create sympathy. Standard issue domestic violence.
2) Suhasini’s prospective MIL being slapped by prospective FIL – Standard “She-was-asking-for-it” fare.
3) Sitara being slapped by abusive husband – Shows how bad it was and why she decided to end her marriage and run away.
4) Geetha being slapped by angry husband – Meant to show that their marriage was on the rocks now. There have now quit just screaming at each other. One way to see it is that KB is taking the guy’s side in this one, she has overstepped her boundaries. The other way to see it is that the interiors of a real unhappy marriage is being displayed to the world at large. Though the movie does judge Geetha to be a abusive and manipulative wife, we don’t go “Wow, she deserved it”, but “Aiyo”. At least, that was my reaction.
This is interesting. Why do we sometimes side with the antogonist and not the protogonist? Why do we not obey what the creator wants us to feel? I am not sure. I have lots of thoughts on that topic.
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Oh, I am seeing the ‘missed you’ just now! Thanks! 🙂
Believe me, it has been hard to keep up with the posts themseleves (BR, you, Anu) and I had absolutely no time to even read the Comments section for the past some months. I kind of realized that something major has happened in Br’s blog only recently. Just last night I read through a series of ‘high voltage’ comments section in certain posts and I went 😮 I didn’t even realize that Antartica’s ice is melting over, oh my!! I am so sad that I wasn’t around to ‘comment-backup’, cha!
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With some people I know that they haven’t read the comments if they are not backing me up.
Tough times. But somehow we survived. Perhaps I should write about it sometime.
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No, it isn’t just about reading the comment, Rahini, but also about being in a position to reply back. I was, first of all, skimming through even some posts, let alone comments. When something caught my eye while scrolling and if I did understand the context, then I would react to it. But, before the Kodambakkam post by BR, I didn’t read through every single comments like I used to until January this year. I usually skip certain comments (like Utkal’s, I don’t get context in Hindi movies much, unless and until I have seen those movies myself). In the same way, I had skipped Apex’s comments – I have no patience with too layered SMS way of talking. And then yesterday, when I was in the Black and White thread and realized that something was not right and went back to all 100+ comments posts and boy, was I shocked! Ram Murali has left the blog; Anuradha decided to not comment for sometime and then did only recently; that this Apex character was a sleazy creep (I only thought he and P had some eye rolling koochie poochies) – I didn’t even realize these. Sad, so sad! Anyway, adhuvum kadandhu ponadhu.
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