Female Body as a Site of Resistance in “Draupadi”

“Darupadi,” the epic character, is subversively presented by Mahasweta Devi’s short story challenging patriarchal and oppressive social systems. The story depicts how patriarchal power establishes itself as a hazard to the female other by trailing the prerequisites of contingencies that meld together history, politics and social systems. Draupadi challenges the society through transgression and ruination which can override the normal interpretive strategies of a society where the female other is imposed with a subjective self-consolidation. What is unachievable by the female other is indistinctly reproofed through a keen defiance of sexual differential. Thus, female body becomes a site for resistance subverting imposition of patriarchal authority and power in order to disengage gender through violence. Draupadi counters patriarchal power through body to overcome isolation, destitution and desertion from the social institutions that are supposed to fashion the rights of women. Body shaming and dishonour, consequently, becomes a site for enunciation to counter act the deployment of power over the body. This essay attempts to map how Devi, in her story, employs and asserts female body as a site of resistance

Portraying Mahalakshmi as an Awe-inspiring Mistress: An Exploration of M. Kumaran S/o Mahalakshmi

Maria Shriver, an American journalist and activist has expressed that having kids - the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings - is the biggest job anyone can embark on, which is a widely accepted truth, notwithstanding to the boundaries of time, culture and nativity. The research paper aims at exploring the episodes of the movie, M.Kumaran S/o Mahalakshmi that assist in substantiating the proclamation of Maria Shriver. The research paper attempts to scrutinize and reiterate the determination of the single-handed Mahalakshmi who plays a successful and inspiring role in all her capacities. Mahalakshmi is a prominent and inspiring woman character of the 2004 Tamil family-drama film, M.Kumaran S/o Mahalakshmi that was directed by M. Raja. Being a woman character, she has influenced millions of souls of different backgrounds remarkably. Having deserted by her lovely husband Eshwar, Mahalakshmi moves to a strange city with her sole boy child wherein she strives to become a college Lecturer, thereby constructing her and her son, Kumaran’s life