Twentieth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper explores the idea of locating the Dalit Aesthetic in the women of Sarpatta Parambarai, a film directed by Pa Ranjith. The reason for this approach is simply the fact that there is very little writing on the women in the Dalit community and things are fairly new and are yet to be defined. Therefore, discovering the Dalit Aesthetic in the women using a story that is as much about the women as it is about the underdog who succeeds at the end of the film, it offers one a larger perspective and understanding of how women access the world around them very differently. To define the Dalit Aesthetic first and then locate the women in it would be a limiting attempt. This paper explores the vast possibility that the women offer to help define what we can call the Dalit Aesthetic.