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The drama of real life has always fascinated great masters of Art - it is not that they wanted to eulogize the common man's destiny: they felt it in their being a real need for expression of man's helpless existence. For these masters art is nothing but life intensely felt and experienced.

Akira Kurosawa’s brilliance as an authority on theater is legendary. His uncanny instinct in capturing the intangible, subtle insights of the ordinary mundane life are well known to every lover of theater (and cinema). His plays shock us with their simplicity of presentation and leave us emotionally disturbed for a long time.

Pushpa Surendra, hails from a farming family in Kodagu district. She studied in Kodagu, Mangalore and Mysore. After marriage she lived in Hong-Kong for eight years. Living in Hong Kong provided her an opportunity to travel in south-east Asia, Japan and China. She lived in China as a student of Chinese language and traveled extensively in many provinces including Inner Mongolia. Since returning to India she lived in Chennai, was involved with Earthworm Books, as a founder director. She moved to Mysore three years ago and is now a full time farmer. She writes a monthly column in The Hindu on Sunday entitled "Rural Diary".

She wrote Kurosawa’s Farmer specially for the CAAM-Net with the idea of comparing the plight of farmers in rural areas today with that of what is portrayed in the two movies of Kurosawa set in feudal times. She thinks that the stories if adapted to the present Indian situation by theatre groups such as Ninasam and if staged in the villages will have a great impact on the farmers.

Japanese film director Akira Kurasawa’s two movies “Seven Samurai” and “Rashomon” have some relevance to us farmers.

“Seven Samurai” is a movie about the farmers set in feudal Japan. In this film Kurosawa depicts a period marked by political uncertainty and infighting among warlords for supremacy. There is no law and order in the society. Remember the lines from W. B. Yeats’ Second Coming “things fall apart, centre does not hold, mere anarchy is loosened upon the earth” it was something like that. In the situation bandits rule the roost and there is a general feeling of despair among people. Farmers are the worst affected as they are taxed heavily by those claiming supremacy over them. They do not know to defend themselves, having undergone centuries of suffering and are used to accepting their lot as inevitable. The bandits swoop on them after each harvest to pillage, destroy, loot and kill.

Farmers of the village gather when they feel they cannot bear the oppression and hunger any longer. They decide to fight the bandits this time but how is the question. It is harvest time and they must do something to prevent the tragedy from occurring again. Since they do not know how to fight, they decide to recruit the services of Seven Samurai (traditional class of warriors/ professional soldiers in ancient Japan who owed allegiance to a chief, warlord or a master who employed them). A handful of farmers are chosen by the village to make the journey to the town to find the Samurai. Once they are in town, they are even afraid to approach these men of war. The farmers stay in a cheap little wayside place meant for such weary travelers. When they tell the story of their misery to fellow travelers they are mocked at. Days go by and their rations are running out but they have not found the Samurai, they cannot go back to the village without finding the Samurai to help them.

The chaos and disorder of the times has hit the samurai class also. They do not know if their masters are dead or alive in the many wars that are being fought. The Samurai are without work and hungry themselves but they are proud men who will not work for “stupid”, “ignorant” and poor farmers.

With great difficulty and several weeks’ stay in town the farmer representatives are able to recruit the samurai. One by one six men are convinced that they should go to the village to help the farmers. Farmers cannot afford to pay them cash but offer to feed the Samurai rice while they eat gruel made out of millet or go hungry themselves. The journey to the village begins with six men and one drifter who follows them in the hope of being accepted by the Samurai to fight alongside them .As it emerges towards the latter part of the movie, the good for nothing drifter is actually the son of a farmer orphaned when still a child by the bandits. As time passes the Samurai begin to understand the hard life of the farmers and begin to sympathise with their lot. A healthy respect for each other develops, they forge solidarity to drive the bandits and successfully eliminate the bandits.

I narrate Kurosawa’s story only because I feel that the present situation in India is somewhat reminiscent of the times Kurosawa depicts in this movie. Just consider the kind of leadership we have in this country, infighting, blackmails, side deals with international power brokers, multinationals. And look at us farmers! Look at our ignorance of the situation and inability to understand the present state of affairs in this age of information revolution. Can the farmers protect themselves from the “home grown” bandits and the international bandits? The situation is now far more worse than what it was in the middle ages in Japan because the farmers then could at least identify their enemy. We farmers are unable to do that because the situation is far more complex.

I personally think there are lessons to be drawn from the Kurosawa story.

1. Since the farmers themselves are unable to fight the bandits by themselves (markets, corrupt politicians, brokers of deals who profiteer at the cost of farmers) they need help from the Samurai. In the present scheme of things unlike in feudal Japan you cannot get onto the street and fight the bandits of present day. If you do that it would be like committing Harakiri. Situation demands we become clever and get people to help us and for this we require strong organizational skills. Do not get worked up if you are ignored. Keep at it. Of course we are not as helpless as Kurosawa’s farmers and there are countless examples of heroism among farmers.
2. Let us find our Samurai. In ancient Japan the Samurai helped maintain order. Can we do that now? Who can we call our Samurai? Are they the opinion makers of today, the powerful media? The media anyway consider the farmers stupid and ignorant and that is why we have been absent for so long from the pages of their newspapers. Yet, there may be a few among them who may be sympathetic and willing to help. They might even begin to like us and make common cause with us, appreciate us for what we are.

I must tell you the second story of Kurosawa, having told the first and its relevance to us. Here is the story of Rashomon.

The story is that of a couple traveling through the forest (I may get carried away if I start describing the beauty of that forest shot, the play of sunlight in the forest and Kurosawa’s photography) along with a male servant, all on horseback. The woman seems unhappy in her marriage. Unhappiness is only hinted upon in the movie. The Japanese are a subtle people who do not betray their emotions in public and as such Kurosawa’s characters do not shed copious tears nor deliver mile long dialogues like the characters in our movies. Anyway let me get on with the story. The woman is raped and her husband murdered. When matter is brought to justice we get many interpretations of this incident. All the characters in the movie the woman, the servant, the intruder-rapist and even the dead man are put on the dock. The dead man comes last, when least expected and in the film when he wakes up from the tomb you become tense, numb with fear, expectation. At one level it seems the “rape”(was it rape at all) was almost wished for by the victim, as was the death of her husband. Kurosawa here explores the subtle and complex dimensions of truth, a woman’s suppressed anger and hostility in marriage, meanness and deceit. Was there a single truth, a single interpretation to what happened?

It seems that though all the four characters were present when the incident happened each had his/ her way of understanding, perception of the event.

I feel we farmers are like the characters in the movie who perceive, think and feel differently about some common problems affecting us.

Can we farmers use the term “We” at all? Can we truly claim to represent the entire farming community? And speak for all? Farmers are of many kinds the rich, middle class, marginal farmers. The marginal farmer sometimes works for the wealthier farmer. Can their interests be the same? Why should a marginal farmer make common cause with the well-healed estate owner? What does he gain by that? The “We” actually is “they” and “us”. Ours is a house divided. In our houses some corners stink. Unless we rid ourselves of the stink we cannot claim to represent all. If journalists are sometimes cynical about claims of farmer’s organizations and their slogans let us think. Social relations in the villages are based on class and caste. Nowhere is it more pronounced and cruel than in the villages, in the dealings of the rich farmers with the poor. If we want the “Samurai” to fight for us they will also raise questions about the stench in our houses, in our back yards. Are we prepared for this? Sometimes the farmers themselves are in nexus with the bandits and work against the interests of their own kind.

Some of us call ourselves organic farmers. What do we do in the name of organic farming? Some use chemicals but do not have the honesty to say so. We set up organizations in the name of farmers, marketing networks to promote the image of a few. There are organizations that have token representation from farmers and no equality among the members. Sometimes it is the wheeler, dealer types promoting themselves for publicity and limelight who actually run the organizations.

Now back to Rashomon’s relevance, which I can tell you in one sentence. Our truth has many hues, many interpretations while seemingly one.

Address:
Pushpa Surendra
Devi Thopu, Erappana Koppalu
Yelwal, MYSORE – 30
Email: poovamma@eth.net

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