Screening Theology: Engaging Faith & Film

Postcolonial Reading of Indian Jesus' Film Karunamayudu

On the day of Ramadan, when our kids were at home enjoying a holiday due to teachers' training day at school in Manchester, we as a family watched the revised version of the film Karunamayudu on our Xbox at home. Both me and my wife remembered watching this film as children in our childhood in local cinema theatre in our town in its longer version, and also watched it when the film was screened on a 16mm screen on the streets of our locality in India. The film had made an indelible impact on us as children, for visualization of the gospel narratives came alive for us from this film.

Now watching this film after a long time helped me to review this film from the perspectives of postcolonial theological positioning. The film becomes an important theological resource for those engaging in postcolonial enterprise, for the plot of the film, the characters of the film, the content of the film and the ethos of the film all depict a new flavour and genre to the gospel narratives in the Bible. The film was produced and released 38 years ago in 1978, the year I was born and has had a wide reception ever since then for it was dubbed in to several Indian languages and was screened on several village and remote streets of India over the years. The film is popular in Hindi as Dayasagar, in Tamil as Karunamoorthy and has been used for evangelistic purpose, though the intention of the film makers was commercial in character. The film locates Jesus story in a culturally contextual setting to India with Indian professional film cast performing the roles. The film brings out several postcolonial pointers, of which I will mention just two for our discussion here. Allow me to mention that film is a 'public text' that calls the audience to engage publicly in reviewing and interpreting it without limiting it with any conditions. The film is reviewed subversively and subjectively to screen theology. A profound theology is screened in this film, for this film becomes an important factor in the construction of faith.

1. A Subversive Postcolonial Hermeneutics:

The film's script provides a directive for subversive postcolonial hermeneutics, for the plot of the film was positioned in a colonial setting of Rome, where Palestine was subjugated to Roman oppression with Barabbas and Judas fighting for liberation through revolution. It was into that setting that Jesus sets his mission through love, justice and peace in order to establish an alternative kingdom called Kingdom of God in opposition to the Kingdom of Rome. Unlike most Jesus films in the West, which tries to film Jesus story from the written gospels with less or no relation to his own context, Karunamayudu brings in the message of the gospel more powerfully, for Jesus' story was located into his own context and was reinterpreted into the world views of the audiences in India. The film makers were bold to read between the lines and behind the lines of the gospel narratives and have used hermeneutics of imagination, hermeneutics of translation and hermeneutics of indigenization. “Where in the Bible did Jesus, Judas and Barabbas ever met?” asked my son as we were watching the film, and I thought that was the strength of the film for it courageously knitted the plot of Jesus story with subversive imagination. The film no doubt became a 'visual gospel' for many people, it became a 'visual Bible' for many people of different faiths who did have the luxury of reading Bible, appropriated the content of this film as 'scripture'. The film did play a role in the formation of faith in Jesus Christ. Cynics contested that the film did not hold the accuracy of the gospel texts and even questioned the authority of the extra canonical narrative plot of the film. On the whole the film employed a subversive postcolonial hermeneutics of interpreting the texts of the scriptures, particularly Jesus story, with a visual difference, helping the audience to revisit the Eurocentric notions of 'scriptures', and also calling the audience to enjoy the freedom of liberative hermeneutics embedded into the context and content of the film. Indian music, song and dance as projected in the film all bring Jesus' story nearer to the Indian audience. This Jesus' film in a way contests the authority of 'print tradition of texts' and helps to recover the tradition of 'oral texts' of the Scriptures which were forgotten and even erased.

Another important character in the film, my younger son's favourite character was Malachi, who was blind man but with profound theological perspectives, for a song has been filmed with him where he questions 'if God ever existed let him come down now to meet to the needs of the people.' He was eventually healed by Jesus and gets back his vision, and recognizes and acknowledges the political messiah in Jesus. There is a deep subaltern epistemology that was expressed through his character, for his non-conformist theological positioning reflects the goals and aspirations of the subalterns of Jesus times. This Indian Jesus' film provides new vistas in screening theology, which takes form and shape beyond written-ness of theology.

2. A Subjective Postcolonial Christology:

Unlike the titles of many Jesus films in the West, which carry the triumphalist titles like 'King of Kings' or popular titles like 'Passion of Christ', this 1978 Telugu film was titled as Karunamayudu which means 'Compassionate Man', projects a subjective postcolonial Christological title to the film. No where in the Bible is this title used for Jesus like the Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, Lord, Master etc. though he was understood as a man full of compassion, and to entitle the plot about the life of Jesus in such a way, projects the subjectivity of the Indian understanding of Jesus. In a colonial context, where the whole Palestinians were longing for freedom, the longing for a political messiah was well projected in the film, for Jesus comes as Karunamayudu, whose politics are counter-cultural to the Roman empire and also to Barabbas-Judas duos violent strategy. Such a counter-cultural Christology suits to the Indian context, for there has been a yearning for such a political messiah who is an embodiment of compassion, who comes from among the community in addressing the unjust situations of our times. Jesus' portrayal as a carpenters son is to communicate that he is a boy living next door to the audience. Jesus' mother Mary teaches to read scriptures to him as boy, and when Jesus meets her he bows down to touch her feet, his meek outfit and body build up, all project the subjective Indian Jesus. Such a portrayal contests all forms of the macho- Jesus, who is all mighty and all powerful.

Dwight H. Friesen in his PhD dissertation on “An Analysis of the Production, Content, Distribution, and Reception of Karunamayudu (1978), an Indian Jesus Film”¹ expounds 'hybrid Jesus' in the film and argues that the cinematic Indian Jesus was so visualised to suit and meet the expectations of the audience of multiple religious traditions of India. He further expresses that this Indian portrayal of Jesus story is to 'diffuse his reputation of foreign God.' However the subjectivity has been of the Indianness, but which Indianness? According to Dwight's analysis the film reflects a resonance to the Hindu mythological portrayals, for example the ascension episode was projected with Jesus becomes bigger and bigger, dwarfing the human community. A Dalit assertion of Jesus would have been even more appealing to the audiences to express Indian subjectivity in the context of postcolonial theological enterprise. One has to be aware that the film has been produced and filmed by a commercial film company who were predominantly Hindu in 1978 to attract popular Indian audiences. Dwight's analysis of Jesus in the film as 'Indian guru' meets to the theological expectations of the inter-faith theological genre in India, but such a portrayal excludes the indigenous communities spiritualities and their aspirations for liberation.

The passion narrative of the film was also dealt with so much care, though there has been an element of over-romantisization of his suffering. Jesus was brought as a criminal to Pilate, where the religious leaders accuse him of religious crimes for which they demand crucifixion, and ultimately the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus, suggests the political naivety of the plot.

On the whole, the Indian film Karunamayudu provides a new terrain for postcolonial theological engagement, for it opens up a new conversation on texts, hermeneutics, epistemology and theology and encourages to construct theologies beyond mere written-ness or words. The hard questions that comes to the fore are, if such Jesus' films are projected as 'visual scriptures' how will people with visual disabilities receive and understand it? Does other films not carry and communicate the values of the gospel? There are some conservative Christians in India who deem watching films as something 'sinful' needs to understand that films are texts that have loads of meaning embedded in them and there is nothing unchristian about watching films.

After 1978, there are several other Indian Jesus' films that were produced and several English films were dubbed into Indian languages, however hardly any of them carried this postcolonial tenor of Jesus' ministry into their plot and contents. Bible ki Kahaniya (Stories of Bible) was an Indian television programme that was televised during 1993 to 1995 in Hindi language with huge Bollywood cast based on Bible. This programme received a huge response from Indian audience for it was televised on the national TV channel Doordarshan. However, it was stopped abruptly for several reasons and did not carry this postcolonial context into its plot.

This review is merely invitational for a more engaged conversation on film and faith. Faith and film should not be seen as opponents but be viewed as complimentary to each other, for there creative convergences between them that evolves and emerges. Faith certainly comes from hearing, and film provides that hearing aid with audio-visual effects. This Indian Jesus' film Karunamayudu opens up new horizons to construct Jesus' story and his gospel relevant to our Indian context, specially from Dalit and Tribal perspectives, for a post colonial lens of reading and re-reading of film, theology and religion from subaltern standpoints becomes immanent and necessary.

Rajbharat Patta

11^th July 2016

Full Length Film can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEhJxsAulx4

1https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/5805/Friesen2010.pdf?sequence=1