In the episode Hometown, the narrative delves intriguingly into the cord between the Tamil Muslim diaspora and their ties to the Tamil Motherland, unveiling a unique transnational culture distinct from that of the Indentured Tamils, who form the ancestral roots of most Malaysian Tamils today. Throughout the narrative, viewers encounter characters proudly listing their ancestral villages such as Alangankulam, Panaikulam, Saanthankulam, and Chittarkottai, all nestled within the Ramnad district, a stark contrast to the reality of most Indentured Tamils, who struggle to even identify the district their ancestors had come from. While this intimacy between the diaspora and the mainland is alien to the displaced Indentured Tamils, the narrative presented in the mockumentary form a parallel with the descendants of wealthy Tamil Hindus and Christians who may still bear strong connections to the Tamil lands.
This contrast is also important to note between Tamil Muslims and the Indentured Tamils because it reveals the plurality of both the Malaysian Tamil community, and the contradictory contexts of migration, which have never been linear. While this comparison is between these two distinct but related communities, the narrative however, introspects upon other Tamil Muslims who do not have a transnational link to their ancestral village in Tamil Nadu. The narrative ruptures this hegemonic view of the connections between the Tamil Muslim diaspora and Tamil Nadu, by expressing that to bear no link doesn’t completely uproot one’s identity, consciousness, and culture.
Shafie notes that the insistence within the community to inquire and investigate the roots of another Malaysian Tamil Muslim does not come merely from an innocent sense of curiosity but arises through the need to access how they would need to treat the other person and how they should relate to the other person. In the micro-series, we witness how a character simply stating that his native is Ampang causes dissatisfaction within others, who continue pestering him about his roots. To this annoyance, the simple yet piercing line of “oorachum mayirachum” is delivered; it interprets not just a retort against annoyance but also an affliction against the idea that a person can be reduced to land he bears severed connections with. It iterates that the connection to land alone cannot encapsulate both the dialectical consciousness of man and his ancestral soil.
— The Bhais: Tamil Muslim Mockumentary Explores the Complexities of Being a Minority within a Minority
