Collective sounds: Pa. Ranjith’s cinema, Gaana, and fusion music

ABSTRACT This article studies the Tamil film director Pa. Ranjith as a phenomenon and evaluates the sensorial signification of his experiments with performance and music (Aadalum-Paadalum) in the filmic medium. Foregrounding the music band that Ranjith initiated, ‘The Casteless Collective’ – inspired by the 20th century anti-caste Tamil intellectual Iyothee Thass – which features Gaana (Tamil music form mainly performed by Dalits in urban slums), hip-hop, and fusions of world music; I discuss the debates on music and caste as well as analyze the song-performances in his films Attakathi (Cardboard Knife), Madras, Kabali, Kaala, and Sarpatta Parambarai (The Sarpatta Clan), which I suggest, re-script anti-caste sensibilities in popular culture. This article demonstrates that Ranjith’s interventions not only expose inscriptions of caste but also creatively stage acts of a collective against caste, which is a casteless becoming.