A Movie Dedicated to Teachers{Recalled on the Teachers' Day -2018}

   

    Tamil cinema has frequently dealt with cop stories and occasionally focused on other professions like Medicine {Dr.Shiva was a special film on a medico's commitment to healing the trauma of lepers}and Law{ Gowravam was an extraordinary film about the pride of being a barrister}.Teaching which is called a very noble profession also drew the attention of directors during the last century and films like Teecharamma,K.Balachander's Nootrukku Nooru and Balu Mahendra's Azhiyaadha Kolangal had something different to say about the personal predicament of teachers and the vagaries of students of the school and college routine.But it was in 2012 a distinguished film on the validity and virtue of the teaching profession came out as a brilliant tribute to all true teachers.It was the film Saattai{The Whip}produced by John Max and directed by M.Anbazhagan.
  What was special about the film was the never deviating tone of narration, worthily confined to the course of events centering around a rural government school.So natural and true to life was the narration that the film almost became a treatise on the nobility of the teaching profession. Dhayalan the protagonist who chooses to work in a government rural school, takes up the onerous task of teaching with many a positive strategy, evolved in his mind,that carries well entrenched objectives such as, student equality both in terms of caste and gender,academic freedom both for the teacher and the taught and an unflinching belief that the allotted material and mind blowing benefits of education should positively reach all the students.
    Dhayalan hates corporal punishment in any form unscrupulously meted out to errant students.He stoutly fights against  pilferage of material benefits,meant for the students through the nutritious noon meal scheme.He questions the unethical practices followed by several teachers of the school including those of the Assistant Headmaster, who atrociously flouts all norms and abuses physical amenities attached to the school to promote his personal interest . Besides, he also carries on  usury, as his private business and utilizes class hours for updating his business records. 
   Dhayalan has to strain his brain and brawn to set things right and restore the lost image of the school while at the same time struggling to establish the legitimacy and dignity of the true teacher not only in himself, but also in his teacher colleagues.It is an ideological war waged by a single individual,to clean the system and call the shots for a total campus transformation.That he succeeds only by surpassing the risks to his own life and personal esteem is of course an inevitable dramatic necessity.
   At the outset, these things might appear cinematic.But at a deeper level the film poignantly showcases the ills that prevail in several such rural and urban schools.The film beautifully pinpoints that amiability,able delivery of information and knowledge,genuineness in upholding the cherished values are the fundamentals of a most crucial profession called teaching.The film also illustrates the importance of the teacher being a role model to budding generations,by maintaining punctuality and personal ethics, besides being modest in passing on to the younger generation a kind of value based, fine tuned, instructional process, that calls for active student participation at various levels, through verbal interaction and talent orientation.
   Samuthrakani's effective underplay as Dayalan,stamped a mark of absolute reliability to the role of an inspiring, exemplary teacher. Thambi Ramaiah as the vituperative Assistant Head Master made his role play amazingly realistic.There was no exaggeration of emotions.The audience would ever remember more,the live school campus,than their audio visual experience of watching a film.This is the most successful point of the film. Vijay TV can be proud of telecasting this film once a way.As a former college teacher and blog writer, I thought it is another way of paying a tribute to the teachers on the Teachers'day, by recalling the nuances of teacherly glory celebrated in the film Saattai. Hence this brief article on the film.  

Prof.P.Chandrasekaran
{Retd}