Tag: Karuppar Koottam

Murugan and Rajinikanth 4

~ The Koboi Project ~ Leave a comment

In the course of my performances at the Singapore Biennale 2016/2017, I offered prayers to lord Murugan (also named Skanda or Kanthan) and salutations to Superstar Rajinikanth. I recited a stanza from the ​the nerisai venpas (closing verses) of the “Thirumuruhaattup-padai” – a hymn, to the Lord’s glory, composed by the poet Nakkirar. I ended my prayer with with the exaltation “Murugmikku Arohra!” I then praised the SUPERSTAR thus, “Thalaivar Vallha!” My bringing together of Murugan and Rajinikanth in this event, foreshadows the recent Tamil Nadu media spectacle ensuing from the Periyarist Facebook Channel Karuppar Koottam‘s denigration of Lord Murugan. The State authorities swiftly shutdown the offending site and arrested two parties who were allegedly responsible. Rajinikanth praised the crackdown tweeting , “At least henceforth, let there be an end to religious hatred and demeaning of gods. It should end,” ending his tweet … “Kandhanukku Arohara!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=Cvu3qfhQsdI&feature=emb_logo

https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasu/performance

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInQup_YzESGFToU1zZ8JBg

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-two-tamil-nadu-periyar-activists-arrested-for-offensive-video-on-lord-muruga/357020

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/rajinikanth-tweets-kandhanukku-arohara-thanks-tamil-nadu-govt-for-swift-action-against-karuppar-koottam/articleshow/77117933.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Murugan and Rajinikanth 3

~ The Koboi Project ~ Leave a comment
5 Valthal

Superstar Rajinikanth is one of the highest paid actors in Asia. He is a renowned philanthropist and an influential figure in Tamil Nadu public life who is respectfully referred to as Thalaiva or ‘leader’. The SUPERSTAR, who recently spoke up in the context of the Karuppar Koottam  affair, was himself the first dark-skinned (Karuppu) leading man in the context of Tamil cinema. 

Upon meeting Rajinikanth in the early 1970s, director K Balachander is supposed to have been struck by “the fellow’s fragile health and powerful eyes and his chiselled face… [a]nd of course, his skin colour, you know. The dark skin I thought was an advantage because again it is different from others. All the people who are very fair and all that, they have an easy entry into films. Why shouldn’t I take this boy, give him a good role, and see what can be drawn out of him?” While he seems today to be veering away from his promised Tamil Nadu political entry, this dark Dravidian cinema icon has thus far been showing signs of a decidedly ‘saffron’ or Hindutva leaning.  

In my 2016 exhibit for the Singapore biennale I performed a ritual offering to both lord Murugan and to Rajinikanth, thereby attempting to articulate the relationship of Traditional Hindu iconolatry and contemporary Kollywood idolatry.

https://scroll.in/reel/870652/the-colour-black-has-a-starring-role-in-rajinikanths-films-from-apoorva-raagangal-to-kaala

Murugan and Rajinikanth

~ The Koboi Project ~ Leave a comment
Kiasu Cowboys Performance, Koboi Project, Singapore Art Museum 2017

In the midst of the Political storm caused in Tamil Nadu by the Periyarist Karuppar Koottam facebook chanel’s recent denigration of Lord Murugan and his Kanda Sashti Kavasam, Superstar Rajinikanth came out form his political hibernation to acknowledge the sitting AIADMK state government, itself Periyarist in inception, for the swift crackdown on the alleged provocation. Two protagonists of the disturbance were arrested and charged with ‘giving provocation intent to cause riot’, ‘promoting enmity between different groups’ and ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings’ under the Indian Penal Code.

Writing on this matter based on my valid, if limited, locus standi, as a Jaffna born Tamil, I must note that while I am enamored of the ethos and charisma of Dravidian politics, I have never appreciated its central praxis of narrow communal scapegoating as a means to mass mobilization. While admiring their pioneering deconstruction of religion and myth as means to power and as forms of social control, I have always rejected their blank atheism as a window onto the truth of human existence. Without developing this sensitive, explosive even, subject further, I would like to take the opportunity of its topicality to index my own engagement with this nexus of Muruga and Thalaiva! In 2016/17, I presented an installation and performance at the Singapore Biennale which itself became the basis for 5th photographic series of the Koboi Project titled Kiasu Cowboys. Central to this work are the acknowledgement of Lord Murugan, via an antique terra cotta icon of the ‘mango myth’ and a large photographic print of a cinema hoarding of Superstar Rajinikanth.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInQup_YzESGFToU1zZ8JBg
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-two-tamil-nadu-periyar-activists-arrested-for-offensive-video-on-lord-muruga/357020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc31a0xd1FUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc31a0xd1FU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Anna_Dravida_Munnetra_Kazhagam
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/karuppar-koottam-hindu-peravai-members-held-under-goondas-act/article32207633.ece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Tamil_Nadu
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasuhttps://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasu
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kiasu/icon
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/kedualan