Tamil Film made in 1997, directed by Malayalam director John Abraham.

1. FilmBulb
Agraharathil Kazuthai | Tamil | India | 1977
Director: John Abraham | Starring: MB Sreenivasan, Swathi
Recently I stumbled upon the CNN-IBN Top 100 Indian films, while the list was
not to my liking; I noticed this film, Agraharathil Kazuthai in the list. With my
scanty knowledge in the films, I haven’t come across this film or title. It was
said this film was released in 1977, so I turned to my mother who used to see
more films in her earlier days, she said she had heard about this film, but
haven’t seen it. Well if she hasn’t seen it then it is not a commercial release. It
was labeled as “art” film and was deprived to major release. Luckily, I found
this film in YouTube, the full movie.
Plot
Narayana Swamy (MBS – MB Sreenivasan) a college professor, while returning
from work a little donkey (He later names it as “Chinna”) is seen in front of his
house. Later he comes to know that the neighborhood mob have harassed and
killed the mother donkey. Taking pity on the little donkey, he decides to make
it as his pet or give refuge to it. As days progress his job as a professor is at
stack because of this donkey, the college students ridicules him. The principal
of the college thinks this will malign the reputation of the college. So he
decides to takes the donkey to his native, a village. He leaves the donkey in his
father’s house, an agraharam. He also appoints a mute girl, Uma, to look after
the donkey and he leaves to the city.
As in the city, people ridicule this donkey-business in the village. Some people
use this donkey for their own needs to intentionally bring disrupt to their
neighbor’s. Everyone starts to blame the donkey and they kill it. After this,
good incidents happen to some villagers and they inherit this to the donkey,
terming it as a divine donkey and also plan to build a temple for it. The
professor comes in the end to learn that the donkey is killed, so he tries to give

2. a funeral to the dead donkey, the fire then spreads to the entire village and
eventually everything is burned down.
Symbols
The above said is the plot, but there should some inner meaning to it. This is
not a fantasy story, but something is there hidden by the maker. Certainly no
sensible being will make a donkey as pet. The professor is from the Brahmin
caste, this is why the film is titled as Agraharam (Usually identified as a
Brahmin ghetto).
What does the “donkey” symbolize? Most of the religious seers or saints
irrespective of any religion are first condemned. People don’t accept it and
only after some “so-called adhoc” divine interventions or miracles they make
these saints as gods. In this film the villagers (read Brahmins) go on to
associate the donkey as a divine power, while they initially hated it. I guess the
film maker tried to ridicule the superstitions, “god” as it presented by man or it
is a just plain donkey.
Controversy
According to Cinema of Malayalam, the film was about to be telecasted in the
Doordharshan, but was forced to cancel it because of the protests.
The film was directed by John Abraham, more leftist, he made four films (rest
three in Malayalam). While preparing for the fifth film, he died in a tragic
accident. MBS, a Marxist joined Communist party, latter become a musician.
Images and Trailer: http://filmbulb.blogspot.com/2013/07/agraharathil-
kazuthai-india-1977.html