Contemporary Anti-Caste Cinema: Pa. Ranjith, Dalit Movements, Cultural Assertion and the Politics of Representation in Mainstream Tamil Cinema

Abstract The recent anti-caste cinema trend within the Tamil film industry has created widespread discussion in the public sphere. While early Tamil filmmakers have already engaged with caste-critical themes in their works, the contemporary trend is novel in its approach as it focuses on Dalit experiences and Ambedkarite politics. This paper situates this cinematic shift within the broader context of the Dalit political movements of the 1990s. Director Pa. Ranjith’s intervention in the Tamil film industry marks a transformative movement in the representational politics of Tamil cinema. In this article, I explore how the contemporary anti-caste cinema initiated by Ranjith differs from the caste-critical works of early Tamil filmmakers. I explore how Ranjith has reassessed and rearticulated Dalit life and culture in the cinematic space. I argue that this trend should not be understood as ‘anti-caste cinema’, but recognised as ‘Dalit cinema’.