Panthibhojanam Analysis

PANTHIBHOJANAM: A STORY OF ADAPTATION
Anjana Treesa Joseph
MPhil Scholar
Department of English
University of Calicut

“Art is derived from other art; stories are born of other stories” Adaptation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has a plurality of meanings and applications, but mostly alludes to the process of changing to suit an alternative purpose, function, or environment; i.e., the alteration of one thing to suit another. Adaptations are not new to our times. Shakespeare transferred the history of his culture from page to stage. Aeschylus, Racine, Goethe are all known to have done the same, retelling the old familiar stories to a new audience, using a new medium. Adaptations are a big part of the Western culture that they seem

On one side is the trio of Christian, Nair and Nambudiri girls, upper caste in their own words- Susan (Lakshmipriya), Ramya Nair (Jyothy Rajesh), Sangeetha Nambudiri (Manjusha)- whose innuendos and snide comments point to the potential threat from the Dalit advocate Rugmini (Krishna Viswakarma). There is also the competition offered to the Nambudiri girl by the Dalit advocate by way of the attention received from the young Varma colleague-Sathish Varma (Rajeev Shankar), an eligible bachelor. The story opens right into the tension of the hearing of Sangeetha Nambudiri’s first independent case; she is the lawyer of the defendant C P Gopala Menon, who is accused of calling Kappakutty, a Dalit, by his caste name (which is prohibited by the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1999), and attempt of murder. He is a distant relative of Rugmini, the public prosecutor. Around a lunch table at the bar, Sangeetha and friends had once talked about the caste and hereditary of food, and she had pointed out the classlessness of Rugmini’s food – the nauseating smell of “chettu meen” (fish from muddy waters). Rugmini, who came to know of this has not even looked at Sangeetha since. The trio of friends decide that Sangeetha’s only chance of winning the case is a compromise with Rugmini, which they orchestrate through Sathish Varma, Rugmini’s partner. The

Even before this, Sree Narayana Guru and many of his disciples had worked diligently against untouchability. Guru’s famous catchphrase was Oru Jati, Oru Matham, Oru Deivam Manushyanu, (One Caste, One Religion, One God for Man). One of his disciples, Sahodaran Ayyappan, a militant atheist, re-wrote Guru’s catchphrase as Jati Venda, Matham Venda, Daivam Venda Manushyanu (No Caste, No Religion, No God for Man). He launched what is called Panthibhojanam participating people belonging to various castes and communities. I chose Panthibhojanam as a study of adaptation, because I feel that it talks of more than a media adaptation, which it becomes in its journey from page to screen, from Aechikanam’s pen to Sreebala’s camera. It also tells the story of cultural adaptation, not in the migratory perspective but the subtle shifts that evolves within a locale, even in a