From villain to hero
According to film historian and critic Theodore Baskaran, Mani Ratnam’s drama film Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), set in the backdrop of the civilian war in Sri Lanka, was among the earliest Tamil films to normalise drinking alcohol on screen. “There’s a scene when the characters played by Madhavan and Prakash Raj – the hero and his host – drink casually at home. It is not vilified or glorified. It is as if they’re just drinking tea or coffee, and there’s no stigma attached to it,” he said.
Such a portrayal was probably reflective of globalisation that marked a cultural shift in Indian society in the Nineties. Political strategies towards alcohol have also influenced its representation in cinema. Total prohibition was introduced in Madras State under Chief Minister C Rajagopalachari in 1952. M Karunanidhi’s DMK government suspended it in 1971, allowing the sale of arrack and toddy, and in 1983, Chief Minister MG Ramachandran established the state-owned liquor distribution company, TASMAC. “In the Thirties and Forties, anti-alcohol messaging was very prevalent in Tamil cinema made on social subjects,” recalled Baskaran. “It was part of the Gandhian ideology and the Temperance Movement in India to curb alcohol consumption. Take the film Naam Iruvar (1947). Whenever a bad man appears, you’ll see him drinking.”
Naam Iruvar was about a young man who falls into bad company and indulges in vices. He eventually reforms and becomes a nationalist and a Gandhian. By the Fifties, anti-alcohol propaganda was waning but still, alcohol was primarily associated with the villain on screen. Films that came in later decades showed the hero drinking alcohol, but it wasn’t as normalised as it is now. It either happened in the context of a club scene, tragedy or some factor that justified the drinking.
For example, in ‘Silar Kudipathupole’ from Sange Muzhangu (1972), MG Ramachandran is disguised as a Punjabi Sikh man who pretends to drink alcohol at a party while he’s investigating a case; Kamal Haasan in Sattam En Kaiyil (1978) plays twin brothers – one an educated, responsible person and the other who is his antithesis. To establish the difference, the latter is shown drinking alcohol and partying in ‘Sorgam Madhuvile’. In Salangai Oli (1983), Haasan plays a talented dancer who falls into depression and turns to alcohol for respite. Rajinikanth in Padikathavan (1985) is anti-alcohol in principle but gets drunk and sings the ‘Oora Therinjukitten’ song after he realises that his brother had been lying to him all along. Sivakumar in Sindhu Bhairavi (1985) is an acclaimed Carnatic singer who spirals into depression following an extramarital affair and takes to alcohol.
In the Nineties and 2000s, drinking alcohol on screen became associated with fun or required no justification. In Padayappa (1999), for instance, Rajinikanth’s character, the hero and titular character, sings “Kikku Yerudhey” and dances with his family, including his teenage daughters and her friends, after accidentally drinking alcohol. By the time Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Master (2021) came around, even alcohol addiction didn’t need justification. In the film, Vijay plays JD, an alcoholic professor who comes up with different stories for his habit depending on who asks him. “I think alcohol has seeped into the lives of people after globalisation. Parents are also okay with social drinking in many homes in urban spaces. It has been normalised and cinema reflects this reality,” said Prabhu Ram Vyas.