Revolving around the region of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin district, this Tamil anthology Thamirabharaniyil Kollappadaathavargal, draws mostly from the writer's childhood and youthful experiences,听travels across the themes of relationships, casteism and discrimination, politics, gender and sexuality. It wasn't aiming to make the readers enlightened and intellectual听but emphathize and understand things outside of one's own comfortable bubble.
Every story has the potential to take the readers back to their nostalgic childhood days and moments at schools, bus stops, canteen, beaches, next door grandmothers and many more little things that'd add more sweetness to the living. Having lived a portion of my childhood days in some of the places he mentioned gives new perspectives to my romanticism and view of my native town.
鈥淢y entire schooling was in my village. It was when I stepped into the law college, I first came to a town. But college life was not a good experience. The first question I faced was about my caste. Since I was considered as an insubordinate student, whatever I did went wrong. At one point of time, a police case was registered against me and that was when I discontinued my studies and ran away from home.鈥澨�
Beside his writings, he has directed a highly听commendable tamil movie Pariyerum Perumal (2018) which explores a story of dalit law student dealing with the notions of love, relationship, humiliation with听caste politics and听honor killings.
鈥淧arty leaders see politics as business. Mine was 鈥榝rustrated politics鈥� because whatever I lost in it during my early life have not been compensated till now. Tamil Nadu is in a state of 鈥榮exual poverty鈥�. Having a woman鈥檚 friendship is considered a fantasy. At this juncture, understanding either sex becomes critical. I think my stories reflect that criticality.鈥�
Overall, this collection of stories are wonderful to have for any tamil readers. For people who still live in villages at heart irrespective of where they are.听
To be honest, my opinion on Mari Selvaraj before this was just 'him being a good film maker'. "As long as he has Good content, he can deliver them with ease and keep making good films" was the only thing on my mind. This book has completely changed that thought. This guy has stories and he will never be lacking content. He has stories to tell for generations and damn he's a very good story teller.
As far as short story books are concerned, I could easily finish 15-20 storis in a week span as I love hearing stories. But completing these 21 stories atleast took me a couple of months. Not that they were difficult to read, but was quite tough to process for me. Such was the impact. I could never finish a story and immediately start off a new one. The former one was crawling all over my mind that forced me to have a pause before the next story.
As said before, Mari has stories to tell for generations and he'll be hitting with them real hard, be it through the screens or the papers.
I seriously wish that there is an English translation of this book and I could recommend it to you all to read. This is a book about people whom you have crossed everyday in your life, but failed to notice. This one is not preachy or rebellious, it is simply about the lifestyle of those common people and helps us notice them and look around.
I belong to Tirunelveli district as well and I haven't noticed these common folks in my entire lifetime. They always cross the streets and roads and I had moved away from them in disgust. Or maybe that's what I was preached from a very young age.
This book just shattered all my identity, all my perceptions and spoke about sex, gender, desire sex workers, humans, their behaviour, dogs, cows and pigs in a way it was never spoken of. Maari Selvaraj annan has been one of my favorite directors right from his movie 'Pariyerum Perumal' and now I just look at him and he stands at a height that I won't ever reach.
"Thamirabaraniyil Kollapadathavargal" (Those who Survived Thamirabarani) is a compelling collection of 21 short stories penned by Mari Selvaraj, delving into themes of childhood innocence, love, lust, guilt, disgust, casteism, discrimination, and oppression. Set predominantly in the rural areas of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin, some may find the inclusion of local slang a bit challenging. However, Mari exhibits remarkable skill in immersing us in these rural settings, fostering empathy for the characters. While a few stories, such as the Anand-Shah short story, didn't resonate with me as strongly, the majority are impactful, and some stories prompting me to pause and reflect on the emotions. I recommend this book but please note that this book is for adult readers aged 18 and above.
A very different Maari Selvaraj than what we see in his movies. Written over the last ten years, one can see Maari selvaraj dabble with themes very varied than his two films. The title story stands out - probably because it is very close to the themes that he explores in his movies. The character of Mugilan leaves the same mark that Pari from Pariyerum Perumal. There are a few stories dealing with the harshness of life for oppressed communities in Villages. A few other stories take on adolescence, lust and love of rural Tamil Nadu. Whether they are successful or not, one thing that is constant across the stories is how well Maari captures the essence of Tirunelveli/Tuticorin life.
Hailing from the Foothills of Western Ghats, Especially the borders of Tirunelveli, This book gave me a sense that all these stories are happening in my next street. Mari's movies has previously instilled a sense of pride and prejudice to my hometown. But, this book destroyed all of that, pushed me into borderline identity crisis and showed that the pure blue river of Thamirabarani is dirtier (bloodier) than the stinky black cooum of Chennai. Now after this book, I understand the violence and the gore, his movies has. His movies are mere 1% of the intensity in his writings.
Its has some truth of society and The Mari Selvaraj write is show some bold move also amateurs in this book. But must read some of characters in book in never forgot.喈む喈喈班喈班喈苦喈苦喁� 喈曕瘖喈侧瘝喈侧喁嵿喈熰瘝喈熰喈班瘝喈曕喁� is super but I read 喈喈曕瘝喈曕喁� 喈ㄠ喈┼瘓喈曕瘝喈曕喈编瘒喈┼瘝 so I don't pike the narrative from this book after first book Mari do best work in next for my opinion