Agraharathil Kazhutai (English: Donkey in the Brahmin street) is a 1977 Tamil language film directed by avant-garde filmmaker John Abraham.

John's second film, Agraharathil Kazhutai made in Tamil, is a hard hitting satire on the brahminical bigotry and superstition, where a donkey becomes the central character. IBN Live included the film in its list of 100 greatest Indian films of all time.^[1]

Plot [edit]

A donkey strays into a village dominated by the upper caste Brahmins. Prof. Narayana Swamy decides to keep it at his house. He appoints a mute girl to look after the donkey. The entire village turns against the donkey and his caretaker. When the girl's stillborn baby is deposited outside a temple, the donkey is blamed and is killed. After the death of the donkey some miracles start happening in the village. People start believing that it is the donkey that brought about all the miracles and starts worshipping the dead body of the donkey. The villagers give a ritual funeral to the donkey by burning it. In a symbolic end, fire spreads and engulfs the entire village. Only the professor and the girl survive.

Even though this film won a National award, Doordarshan was forced to cancel a scheduled a TV screening due to protests.

(For the story, Courtesy to and sourced from Cinema Of Malayalam)

Cast [edit]

• M. B. Sreenivasan as Professor Narayanaswami
• Krishnaraj
• Raman Veeraraghavan
• Swathi as Uma
• S. Gopal
• Sreenath Sreenivasan as Host
• Savithri Rajan
• Sri Lalitha

Additional details [edit]

• Also Known As: Donkey in the Brahmin Ghetto
• Colour: Black and White
• Sound Mix: Mono

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Agraharathil Kazhuthai at the Internet Movie Database
• Cinema Of Malayalam
• John Abraham - Profile in cinemaofmalayalam.net
• John Abraham - Weblokam profile
• A tribute to Ritwik Ghatak by John

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