Since the topic of EWS Savarna reservation has been silenced by Savarna marxists and their pro followers on twitter, here's a look back at how Cinema contributed a huge role.

Thread: How the EWS Savarna reservation agendas found its echo in 70s/80s New-wave Malayalam Cinema.

'Portrait of Educated Youth' and Malayalam Arthouse Cinema.

Utharayanam × Amma Ariyan

PS: I would say that, in Amma Ariyan John openly subverted the generic art-house cinema protagonist - the apolitical youth, and brought active political participation of youngsters.]

Art Cinema was a consistent contributor to the savarna sentiment, but in a nuanced way. The protagonists are cursed of intelligence, they eventually descends into insanity - but whom are they protesting? This has to be read with social contexts.

Utharayanam × Anantaram (1985)

They might not verbalise any anti-reservation dialogue like the commercial cinema, but they shared a similar worldview in a nuanced way showing the servere hardships of Nair/Menon protagonists in seeking a job - in a world where exists backward reservations.

Now, this is the same scene of 'Uttarayanam' from a commercial film. Outrightly problematic isn't it? This is an example how commercial cinema and art cinema works, with different modus, but similiar aims - here, advocacy for savarna reservation.

© Gokul:

Now let's take a more well-made commercial film and see how the same scene operates. 'Nadodikkattu' shows the unemployment of Dasan and Vijayan. While the film is more emphathetic to Dasan (Nair), Vijayan (the lower-caste) is caricatured. (1/2)

The film always sets a caste hierarchy in Dasan and Vijayan's education/employment stature. A dialogue of Dasan says, 'SSLC yum oru degree aanu Vijaya' which is basically an UC lecturing a bahujan to stay within his limits and behave in "his standards". (2/2)

While the new cinema movements in world cinema - French new-wave, Italian neo-realism, Japanese/Korean new-wave were critiques against Hollywood's bourgeois film language, and while they addressed social issues with subaltern expression, the new-wave in Malayalam Cinema alone was

about impoverished Brahmins, and young poor Nair souls wandering for jobs. But unfortunately they'll end up either die or become mad, due to the sheer societal injustice.

Last picture from Nirmalyam, in which, the UC male leads are unemployed, and they rebel without any cause.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvaram even has a scene in which the hero (savarna) evokes pity in front of a workers union protest - because you know, it is a cunning way to show his unemployment crisis, caused due to bahujan/dalit quotas.

This is from Adwaidam, an openly casteist dialogue which tries to say that minorities have goverment support while the upper-castes are oppressed. Yes, logic buried in Arabian sea. But wait, isn't this the same politics which Adoor subtly spoke in Swayamvaram above?

Adwaidam and other T Damodaran films were publicly trashed by communists, calling out their Hindutva agendas. But remember, the Sanghparivar project Adwaidam addressed was later implemented by Pinarayi Vijayan's communist goverment - 'The Devaswom board Savarna reservation'.

Look how two ideologically opposing wings ironically stood in the same ground. Why? Because, communism in Kerala is 'Savarna communism'. I know it's a weird wording. But unfortunately its true.

Now let's see how Brahmins were portrayed in cinema - naïve, sensitive, fragile and extremely innocent. In MT's Amrutham Gamaya, the Brahmin boy from a poor BPL family, who's the last hope of that Family, is ragged and killed by a college gang.

Look how audaciously tone-deaf MT's understanding of caste based systematic oppression is. He even appropriates a dalit/bahujan issue to the Brahmin. To understand the sheer ignorance of MT, one should google keywords 'ragged and killed' and follow the news links.

Here's the first case i found, an OBC although taken admission through general quota, was harassed, ragged and murderered by an upper-caste college gang. Now co-read this with MT's imagination of caste. https://www.google.com/amp/s/indianexpress.com/article/india/mp-junior-doctor-dies-by-suicide-family-says-was-ragged-over-caste-6720206/lite/

Okay now let me tell you who instilled these EWS Savarna ideas in the political front. It was first EMS Namboodirippad and a committee compromising fully of upper-castes. It was strictly opposed in the assembly by KR Narayanan and other bahujan/muslim leaders.

Likewise in cinema, Adoor, Aravindan and Priyadarshan were all from the Nair caste. And CPM filmmakers like Lenin Rajendran, Venu Nagavalli furthered these agendas in their films as well. Then of course, T Damodaran, the Sangh Parivar propagandist was obsessed about reservation.

Footnotes: I'm in no way claiming that every Nair/Namboodiri/Varma etc are the wealthiest in Kerala or all of them don't affect by unemployment. But it's just a minimum common sense to understand that the bahujan (>50% of Kerala's population consists of Eezhavas and Muslims) -

Is underrepresented in a visual medium like cinema. The default setting of a story is always a Nair/Brahmin family. While if you make a macroscopic view on the general sectors of economy, you'll see that more than 80% of the power structures and held by Nair/Syrian Christians etc

So it is in this context, you need to understand the importance of adequate representation of dalit/bahujans. This was Ambedkar's vision on reservation, and which is why the EWS Savarna reservation remains unconstitutional to the knees.

A small trivia: In Aravindan's 'Uttarayanam' almost every prominent social leaders from Gandhi to Bhagat Singh find their place, but just like the film's crooked ideology there is not a single picture invoking Ambedkar. And the inevitable Narayana Guru is shot shadowy, you see!

The advocacy for Savarna reservation has been synonymous bw RSS and Kerala communists. In Kerala, the agendas to replant reservation from caste to 'economy' has been a long-run process. First they introduced the creamy layer to OBC in 1995,

Then in 2019, a quota of 10% for EWS savarna reservation was passed for members of Devaswom board. Now it is slowly getting extended to goverment jobs - this will be a murder of constitutional values of India and Ambedkar's vision.