Arunraja Kamaraj interview on his directorial series ‘Label,’ and fighting discrimination with cinema

Jai and Arunraja Kamaraj from the sets of ‘Label’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Arunraja Kamaraj is one of Tamil cinema’s most unique personalities. As an actor, he made us laugh in films like Raja Rani, Maan Karate and Maragadha Naanayam. As a singer, he enthralled us with his one-of-a-kind voice in songs like ‘Neruppu Da’ (Kabali), ‘Varlam Varlam Vaa’ (Bairavaa), ‘Katravai Patravai’ (Kaala) and wrote lyrics for tracks like ‘Kodi Parakutha’ (Kodi), ‘Thanga Sela’ (Kaala) and ‘Kaavaalaa’ (Jailer). He also directed the socially-relevant Kanaa and Nenjuku Needhi.

And now, Arunraja is donning the filmmaker’s hat once again and this time, it is for his web-series debut Label, starring Jai, Tanya Hope and Mahendran. “We’re always identified with a label that’s attached to us. If that’s something we willingly accept, it’s something to cherish, but if that’s imposed on us resentfully, it becomes a burden that stops us from standing up straight. The idea of Label is to break such identities,” says Arunraja.

Elaborating on this, he says, “There are preconceived notions everywhere; that women can’t play sports, those belonging to a particular community behave a certain way, people from this area are like this or like that, and so on. How such discrimination affects the dreams of many is the crux of Label.”

While his Nenjuku Needhi was an official remake of the Hindi film Article 15, Arunraja says Label also talks about the discrimination that is forbidden according to our constitution’s Article 15. “I think it’s coincidental. I didn’t realise Kanaa and Nenjuku Needhi were films against discrimination until I did the second film. Label being a similar product is something we realised only after augmenting the initial idea and developing it into its final form.”

(L-R): Jai, Arunraja Kamaraj and Suresh Chakravarthy
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Breaking stereotypes

Interestingly, Label is a byproduct that came out of Arunraja scouting for another story. “I met a few friends from North Madras as a part of fieldwork for a different script. When I was talking to them, some people from that area came up to me and asked if I was going to show them as gangsters or smugglers; they said that’s how they had always been shown. That got me thinking about how they’ve been stereotyped and the pain behind such a question,” says Arunraja, who found a story within that. “I learnt about their life, their celebrations, their dreams and ambitions, and how they are trying their best to break this ‘label’ attached to them by others. I’ve written the script, and for the screenplay, I collaborated with Jayachandra Hashmi from whom I got new perspectives and ideas. He also wrote the dialogues.”

Arunraja says writing a series, compared to the films he’s accustomed to, did not feel alien to him: “It’s a format that we’ve witnessed since our childhood. I’m a huge fan of Vidaathu Karuppu and as a kid, I remember looking forward to the weekly episodes eagerly. Jayachandra and I concentrated more on the episodic value right from the writing stage. I see web-series as an extended version of a film. In a film, there should be a high every 10 minutes as well as enough momentum to sustain till the next high. If those 10 minutes deserve a level of effort, the 30 minutes (per episode) has its work cut out.”

Arunraja does not want to categorise the idea behind Label under a particular political ideology and says that he approached it from a humanitarian perspective. “Ellarum nalla irrukanumnu nenaika vekura oru samoogam inge ille… (We don’t belong to a society that wants everyone to be content). This society wants everyone to be an individual who is better than those around them. When that’s done individually, how can we accept being segregated as groups? Any ideology that harms a fellow human is perilous. That’s the politics I believe in.”

Unlike other contemporary filmmakers whose films are a product of their own life experiences, Label isn’t set in a backdrop that’s familiar to Arunraja. But the filmmaker feels that irrespective of where one is from, they should question what they consider antithetical to their belief. “Being prejudicial is against humanity. Education and the ability it empowers to question will rebel against it… like how our bodies fight against viruses.”

Jai and Arunraja Kamaraj from the sets of ‘Label’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Films and their real-life impacts

He does not seem to believe films need to reform people. “We should inculcate the fact that we’re all the same under the law… and no one is above that. Change has to come from within. We cannot blame the audience when we are making films for that same audience, right? It’s the equivalent of complaining about a cop in a police station.” (smiles)

“But when we write characters that do wrongful activities and face its repercussions, then we put ourselves in those shoes and realise how we’d be in a similar state had we done something similar. That’s the power of cinema,” says Arunraja, who has no qualms in accepting that the same medium has been of paramount importance when it comes to pushing certain stereotypes.

“Artistic works are where one can know about certain places and their people. Crimes happen everywhere but the false construct that it happens only in certain areas is what many believe. Every event has two stories, and only one of them keeps getting narrated every time. The other one is searching for its identity and one such story is Label,” he signs off.

Label will stream on Disney+ Hotstar from November 10