Vedham Pudithu (1987)

Melodrama supposedly critiquing Tamil Brahminism and a major censorship case when the Madras Tamil Brahmins’ Association’s call to have it banned was apparently supported by the then-President of India, R. Venkatraman. Balu Thevar (Satyaraj), a non-Brahmin atheist and the village chief, has a feud with the Brahmin Neelkanth Sastry (Charuhasan) who teaches the Vedas, including their erotic descriptions in Shankara, to Thevar’s son Sankara Pandi (Raja), the latter also being in love with Sastry’s daughter Vaidehi (Amala). Pandi gets killed, as does Sastry. Vaidehi pretends to be dead, and escapes, allowing another character to emerge: a widowed forest ranger (Ravi) who confronts the girl’s Brahmin suitor (Janakaraj) as well as the film’s villain. Bharathirajaa’s practice of setting a love story in the context of village ritual yields an unusually violent story in a film purporting to merge humanist values into religious ritual.