{"id":6294,"date":"2010-08-11T10:28:08","date_gmt":"2010-08-11T15:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=6294"},"modified":"2010-08-11T10:58:23","modified_gmt":"2010-08-11T15:58:23","slug":"innoru_pazham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/11\/innoru_pazham\/","title":{"rendered":"Innoru pazham"},"content":{"rendered":"

A quick post in which we celebrate Kavundamani and Senthil, fixtures in the storied comedy track of Tamil cinema. Actually this is just an excuse for me to share my favorite routine. For a more in depth look at these guys’ comedy and their caste implications, check out “On Castes and Comedians: the language of power in recent Tamil Cinema” by K Ravi Srinivas and Sundar Kaali in Ashish Nandy’s 1999 book, The Secret Politics of our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema<\/i>. Excerpt:<\/p>\n\n

Especially noteworth is the dominant mode of comedy over the past several years which comprises two comedians, one of whom is in a dominant position and the other subservient (these are usually played by two well-known comedians in Tamil cinema, Kavundamani and Senthil, though there are exceptions). The dominant one constantly bullies, exercises authority over, and is scornful towards the physical appearance and personality of the subservient one. The latter is clever at dodging this direct and indirect violence, and eventually succeeds in outwitting the former. Though this is nothing new in terms of structure and is well represented in a variety of comedy traditions, ranging from circus clowning to the Laurel and Hardy films, its caste implications are particularly strong in Tamil cinema and this adds a different dimension to the basic structure of comedy.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Anyhoo, here’s the clip, from the 1989 film, Karagaattakkaaran (translation after the jump):<\/p>\n\n

<\/object><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kavundamani gives Senthil one rupee and tells him to buy two bananas and come back. Senthil narrates this to the shopkeeper, who doesn’t really care. Senthil asks how much the bananas are. “Two for one rupee,” he replies, to which Senthil responds, “One rupee for two!” This goes on until the shopkeeper relents and tells him to pick the fruits himself.<\/p>\n\n

Senthil returns and gives Kavundamani the banana he hasn’t eaten on the way.<\/p>\n\n

Senthil: Here you go, boss.
Kavundamani: What’s this?
Senthil: A banana.
Kavundamani: How many did I tell you to buy?
Senthil: Two.
Kavundamani: One is here. Where’s the other one?
Senthil: This is the other one.
Kavundamani: Oi, what did I tell you?
Senthil: You told me to buy banana.
Kavundamani: How much did I give you?
Senthil: One rupee.
Kavundamani: How many bananas for one rupee?
Senthil: Two bananas.
Kavundamani: One is here. Where’s the other one?
Senthil: This is the other one.
<\/p>\n\n

This goes on as Kavundamani gets angrier and angrier. Eventually after the woman comes out and the story repeats itself, she asks Kavundamani, “Why such a big fight over a fruit?” And then the greatest line ever:<\/p>\n\n

Kavundamani: What? How can you say a fruit ain’t no thing? A fruit is a big friggin’ deal! It was because of a fruit that Paramasivam’s family was ripped in two, one half going to Pazhani! That was a mango, this is a banana, but the problem is the same!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A quick post in which we celebrate Kavundamani and Senthil, fixtures in the storied comedy track of Tamil cinema. Actually this is just an excuse for me to share my favorite routine. For a more in depth look at these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}