The film foregrounds Kittan’s desperate journey into the sport amidst bitter caste feuds, violent gang wars and intense fear and misery of marginalised community in the village hamlets. Kittan’s Kabaddi, entangled with caste order and violence, transforms into a game of survival, hope and honour for the downtrodden community. With honesty and conviction, Mari Selvaraj constructs a seamless narrative in which both hierarchical social structure and sports are inextricably linked.
The film begins with the final Kabaddi match of India versus Pakistan at the 1994 Asian Games in Japan. The coach pushes the captain and team into a do or die situation as the emotions in any match against Pakistan soar high. Sports too will be fought like war between the two nations. The coach strikes out Kittan, a junior player, from the match. Back home the entire hamlet of Kittan is eagerly watching Doordarshan telecast with high expectations on him to bring laurels to the land.
Between the gross denial and the nail-biting match, the broken Kittan goes down the memory lane - the beginnings, the hardships, the obstacles, the rejections and the final entry into the national team, unwinding the age-old oppression that keeps the entire community in constant fear, anxiety and subjugation and any attempt to seek opportunity, even in sports, is viewed with suspicion, disapproval and erasure
As a school boy, Kittan is drawn to Kabaddi. He admires Sundaram, the captain of the village team and a relative and family rival. His humble father Velusamy discourages him as he fears Kittan’s engagement with Kabaddi could kindle casteist backlash and will end his son’s life. His elder sister Raji, who lost her lover, supports him in pursuing his passion. The school physical education teacher motivates Kittan and convinces his father.
The fearsome and reclusive teenager Kittan bears witness to the violence and bloodshed unleashed by Kandhasamy, the dominant caste leader against the suppressed caste and their leader Pandiaraja. Later, in a horrible incident, while his father takes a goat for sacrifice to guard Kittan, the goat’s urination in bus leads to a tussle, the goat is killed and in the ensuing fight Kittan fights back resulting in an enmity with the dominant caste that overshadows Kittan’s future. Kittan is attacked repeatedly and his hands and sexual parts brutally assaulted.
Kittan doesn’t cower down and surrender to adversity. In appreciation of his talent, Kandhasamy enrolls Kittan in his team with the assurance that caste and sport will not be mixed up. Yet, when Kandhasamy’s men are attacked, his hench men suspect Kittan and he is sent back home. Amidst severe stumbling blocks and struggles at every crossroad, Kittan’s passion and mastery in the sport takes him forward and he leads the nation to victory in the Asian Games.
Through the liminal character of Kittan, the film captures how caste foreshadows people wherever they go and life will not hand out anything easily to the marginalised. And despite this, if someone ever makes it to the top, instead of recognizing their competence and hardwork, it will be discredited as a matter of quota or recommendation or sheer luck. The caste domination and supremacy thrives from invisibilising their contribution, their worth and their very existence.
The film subtly shows the adulation of dominant caste leaders through personifications like “The Gold of Our Community,“ “The Lion of Tuticorin” in posters, the tattooing of leaders names, adorning images of leaders in homes and creating wall writings hailing them. People sport daggers and swords as if in an undeclared war. Country bombs are hurled without any fear of law. The footsoldiers of the dominant caste are on high guard over their supremacy and honour. This macabre of killings and counter-killings are unflinchingly laid before us.
In contrast, the protagonist is reticent and restrained for most part of the film, unable to make sense of the hatred and violence around. Kittan’s fury, frenzy and frustration is channelized like bison and comes alive in the sports. Bison as the symbol of restraint, rage and strength is invoked in the film at various points and and is used as a metaphor for the hero who will take the bull of oppression by horns.
Throughout the film there is the run, the deadly run, the mad run of the protagonist Kittan as if he were in the last leg of an athletic event, as if it were the last run of life. This is the literal and metaphorical run - a run without a starting line, finish line; a run for a destination unbeknown; but certainly, a run away from a place where hostility is the order of the day, where the spectre of violence numbs, mutes and murders reason and rationale, and where hatred and animosity waits at the door before one is even born. At every instance of humiliation, at every instance of rejection, the protagonist breaks into run. Running as an escape from this suffocation, running as a means of processing the unspeakable grief, running as chartering a path for freedom. The indefinite run signals the endless tide against the volcano of hate and insanity.
The power of the film is in its ability to hurt and question the thoughts, bias and actions of people in the unjust social order and feel the pain of the suppressed at every step of their life to survive and fight erasure. Behind Kittan’s recognition lays the huge aspiration of the entire marginalised community to gain dignity and honour.
