Punishing the Professor

Dr. P. Senrayaperumal is from a family of hereditary performers of Raja-Rani Attam – a folk theatre form in Tamil Nadu. He rises with incredible effort from a village-level school dropout to be a professor at a college in Madurai. There he is victimised and sacked from his post – on the false claim of “irregular teaching credentials.” The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, ruling in his favour, ordered his reinstatement with back wages. Yet, the college resists doing so. In this battle against crushing odds, you can only marvel at the achievement, resilience, dignity and humanness that he retains through this crisis.

Senrayaperumal is an Arunthatiyar – perhaps the worst off among Tamil Nadu’s Dalit societies. From a degrading caste-imposed performer role, he became a professor earning over Rs 1 lakh a month after 8 years of service – which was when the college terminated his career. This film captures his story and that of millions of Dalits across the country – when someone, against near impossible odds, achieves something remarkable, how an unforgiving caste-ridden society drags them back into the abyss.

A moving and beautiful feature of this film – Perumal delivers a third of the narrative in traditional performer style.

This screening is part of the Everyday FACES of Everyday People exhibition, on display at BIC, from Aug 28 to Aug 31.

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