Ethics, Affect, and the Mahabharata: Karna as the Hero in Tamil Political Mass Movie

This paper examines the character of Karna in two Tamil films: Thalapathi (1991; Dir. Mani Ratnam) and Karnan (2021; Dir. Mari Selvaraj), and explores how vernacular cinematic conventions and Tamil understandings of morality contribute towards a Dravidian rendering of the epic narrative. In Thalapathi, Surya is a henchman of a local don and a man of the masses. Confronted by Arjun, an agent of the state about their illegal activities, Surya must choose between his comrade and as he finds out later, his half-brother. Karnan draws inspiration from a historical event of caste violence against a Dalit community in Tamilnadu, and maps characters from the Mahabharata onto a regional narrative about oppression, resistance, and liberation. In this paper, I analyze how Tamil understandings of ethics and love vernacularize the epic and situate Karna as heroic, allowing for a radical reinterpretation of what can be called a just society.