Allegedly Problematic: 30 years later, revisiting the Prabhu-Khushbu starrer Chinna Thambi

'Allegedly Problematic' is a monthly column by Kuzhali Manickavel, which takes a cheeky look at literary/cultural offerings from the past that would now be considered, well, problematic — and asks, 'But are they really?'.

Read more from the series here.

***

Greetings problematic fam! It’s time to get some righteous indignation up in here y’all! Of late, I have taken the rather unpatriotic step of whining about certain Tamil movies. Not going to lie, I generally prefer to clutch my pearls about “Western” things because those, at the very least, will have some racism going on and racism is always fun. However, I have decided to continue my journey into some of the Tamil movies of my youth because someone said it is mean to assume only “Western” things are problematic. I’m not sure what they were trying to imply but it sounds seditious, no?

Anyway, the Tamil movie we are going to whine about today is called Chinna Thambi. Fam, I don’t know if you have ever experienced the sensation of being part of a community that is collectively falling in one-side-love with something. This is what happened between our town and the movie Chinna Thambi. Everyone suddenly became connected by a very deep feeling only we understood. You felt it every time a song from the movie played during a long bus ride. It was there when you saw posters for the movie, with Prabhu flashing his dimples like God was in his Heaven and all was right with the world. We collectively fell in love with the movie, the songs (OMG THE SONGS!!!), the comedy, the Prabhu-Kushboo pairing, just everything you guys.

I, of course, loved Chinna Thambi just as hard as everyone else. I am a little hazy on the actual story though because, as with many Tamil movies of my youth, it affected me greatly but I never actually got around to watching it. It was a different time, fam. A lot of us girls weren’t allowed to go to theatres because the movie rays would make us pregnant with anti-national elements.

If memory serves, I think Chinna Thambi was about the ‘milk-heart hero’ or that uncomfortable manchild kind of fellow we sometimes encounter in certain Tamil movies. He is a complex character. On the one hand, he is not the kind of manchild that engages in outright sexual violence, which is amazing. On the other hand, he is the kind of manchild who insists on being hand-fed by his mother. ALL THE TIME. He sleeps on her lap. She is still a major player in his bathing routine. He spends his days playing with and being bullied by children (like actual children you guys). And when adults discuss this dude, they often say that he is “innocent”, “he doesn’t know anything.” or that he gets shy “like a girl.” Just to be clear, these Milk Heart Heroes are completely functional dudes. Meaning that he is totally capable of feeding and bathing himself, and of course, getting married! He just behaves in this really uncomfortable way because…people let him? Idk fam.

Let me ask the tough question here. Do we really want to cancel the Milk Heart Hero for loving his mom? In other words, do you hate India? Hard no fam. Although…like I know we go on and on about violence against women being bad and God knows that’s annoying enough. But what if these kinds of portrayals of dudes are problematic too? Like, for the dudes of our community? Is that really weird to say? It is, right?

Anyway, because I am privileged and because some of my friends are dudes, I feel like I am super qualified to write about this. So please do tune in to our next saucy column where we will watch Chinna Thambi and tell everyone about our feelings! Should be fun, right?

Kuzhali Manickavel is the author of the short story collections 'Insects Are Just like You and Me except Some of Them Have Wings' and 'Things We Found During the Autopsy', both available from Blaft Publications