Of life, death & human nature

Shoma A. Chatterji

Venu Nair, who has won many national and international awards for his short films, documentaries and TV series, has come out with his debut feature film Jalasamadhi, which explores as well as exposes a conventional ritual that still sustains the practice of “death by water.” Jalasamadhi, or death by water, is the ritual of giving up one’s life in water on one’s own will. The concept of Jalasamadhi in Hinduism has existed since the Vedic times. It is believed that father of Ashtavakra had performed this yogic method after he was defeated in a debate. According to scriptures, this is a kind of voluntary suicide.

Over time, however, this practice has turned into a crime. Often children and close relatives consciously kill an aged parent when the parent, from their perspective, becomes a burden, or, is ailing from an incurable disease, and the death will result in profit for the grown-up children. No one complains about this crime since everyone is indulging in it.

According to Venu, “When the most senior person in the family becomes a financial liability, he/she is killed by family members. Sometimes it is carried out after making the person unconscious. At times, it is even forced”.

Based on Sethu’s novel Adayalangal, Jalasamadhi revolves around thalaikoothal (senicide), the heinous practice of killing elders in the family which is reportedly practised in some regions in Tamil Nadu. The custom is still practiced with impunity.

“Jalasamadhi was shot in a small colony of Tamil-speaking people in the interiors of Karuvakulam (26 km from Kumily, Idukki district of Kerala). There are just 100-odd houses, a lake and a temple. The colony is surrounded by forests on all sides. It is an isolated place and suited the atmosphere we wanted to create,” informs Venu.

Veteran actor M.S. Bhaskar, who plays the old protagonist Munuswami, lives the role instead of enacting it. Munuswami spends sleepless nights or has terrible nightmares about his close friend who was killed by henchmen hired by his good-for-nothing son. His own son is eager to get the old man out of the way so that he can get his father’s job in the newly set up sugar factory, rich in its lush greenery, fields and sugarcane. He realises that even his wife wants him to take “samadhi”. In desperation, he lends himself to the ritual.

Venu says, “I felt the character was tailor-made for Bhaskar, be it the character’s age, physique, the Tamil twang when mouthing dialogues in Malayalam.”

Submitting to the ritual, he lies down on a cot in the courtyard of his small house. The relatives rub his entire body with oil, then bathe him in cold water. He is then forced to drink lots of tender coconut water. A combination of these is said to lead to the death of the person. It is only Munuswami’s daughter who breaks down when she learns of this. Her brother and his friends lock her in some other house so that she doesnot interfere with the ritual. But Munuswami does not die. He gets up from the bed and walks into his favourite sugarcane fields while his daughter follows him and then breaks down.

“Jalasamadhi focuses on the inhumane attitude towards the older generation. Respecting one’s elders is part of the Indian culture. This is changing and often one finds senior citizens being abandoned by their families, especially in times of financial crunch. I am cautioning against this ‘throwaway’ culture, which is influenced by the rise of consumerism,” sums up Venu. Besides this custom, the film also dwells on forced appropriation of sugarcane land for the sugar factory, which leads to environmental pollution.

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