Spoilers ahead…
This film played at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star and will play at the International Film Festival of Kerala next week…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/sivaranjiniyum-innum-sila-pengalum-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-vasanth-parvathy/
The number three appears to have gripped Vasanth. His last feature film, Moondru Per Moondru Kaadhal, narrated three love stories set against three different geographies. In Sivaranjaniyum Innum Sila Pengalum, which had its world premiere at the Jio MAMI 20th Mumbai Film Festival with Star, the geography stays the same — the confines of a house, the confines of patriarchy — but this is still about three women, as imagined in the writings of three men (Ashokamitran, Jeyamohan, Aadhavan) and set in three time periods: 1980, 1995, 2007 to the present. (I was reminded of Sivasankari’s serialised novel, Paalangal, though that was more about women across three generations).
All three episodes open with a shot of the sea. All of them feature the distinctive calls of our three major religions. Plus, each of these women – in chronological order, Saraswathi (Kalieaswari Srinivasan), Devaki (Parvathy Thiruvoth), and Sivaranjani (Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli)– gets a shot where she climbs and reaches for something in a loft or a top shelf. Vasanth leaves it to us to search for meaning. Perhaps the tides are these women, whose lives are in constant churn by external forces. Perhaps the climbing denotes aspiration, a better life. Perhaps the religious angle signals the promise of deliverance, so near yet so far.
But at least one aspect of the film’s construction leaves no room for alternate readings: the home, generally considered the safest space for women, can be as dangerous as the outside. Even today. Sivaranjani’s story begins in 2007 and lasts well past demonetisation. You might think the most recent story in the film would be the most progressive, or that education would ensure emancipation, but Sivaranjani — a promising athlete — is thrust into marriage while in college. A sad visual joke emerges, when a heavily pregnant Sivaranjani greets her heavily pregnant teacher. Sivaranjani’s husband, Hari (Karthick Krishna), has her under his thumb, and her mother-in-law keeps whining about her cooking. (There are subtle links between the three stories — in the first one, the old woman next door praises Saraswathi’s cooking.) Sivaranjiniyum doesn’t make the mistake of painting all women with the same brush. Some of them are sensitive. Some, like Hari’s mother, have bought into the patriarchy that surrounds them like air.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Anu Warrier
December 8, 2018
Sold! I have to find this and watch this. (Someone I know will be grinning at the thought of me looking forward to watching a Vasanth movie!) Glad to see that Parvati on screen again. I hope she gets more chances – such chances – in Tamil, Kannada, Hindi or any other language. It is Malayam’s loss – and they deserve it.
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sanjana
December 9, 2018
Number 3 is special. Remember 3 Idiots? Why not 4 Idiots or 2 Idiots?
TOH failed because it had 4 Thugs instead of 3!
Teen Deviyan. Three Musketeers. Three Days to Vegas.
Gandhi’s 3 monkeys.
Others can help about the significance of number 3.
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Rahini David
December 9, 2018
Sanjana: Here you are.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfThree
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sanjana
December 9, 2018
Rahini: Thanks for the link. It was educative as well as very funny.
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sanjana
December 9, 2018
By the way, the review is very nice. If I had seen this film without reading this review, I would not have understood some of the nuances this clearly. How could you read the director’s mind or does the director make the nuances stand out? Or maybe watching so many films and having a knack to understand deeper meanings becomes a sort of habit like solving crossword puzzles.
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Venky
December 9, 2018
The religious angle could also signify a false promise of deliverance, given the state of the three major religions in today’s climate.
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vinjk
December 10, 2018
Thanks Brangan for the review. Looking forward to watching it.
Had to google what deep lensing means! 😀
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Suchitra
December 10, 2018
A translation of Jeyamohan’s ‘Devaki Chithiyin Diary’, that one part of the film is based on:
View at Medium.com
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Gautam Nidharshanan
December 10, 2018
The above link has been provided by the translator Suchitra Ramachandran herself. It is to be noted that she has been awarded best translator for fiction at an Asian level contest conducted by a journal, (for a short story of Jeyamohan). She had also given her reading on the story below it briefly. I felt the translation is good and readable. Thank you.
BTW, what are the other two stories?
I once again suggest BR and FC team to consider interviewing writer Jeyamohan.
(Original Devaki Chithi’s Diary – https://www.jeyamohan.in/89190#.XA4sPnQzbIV)
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vinjk
December 11, 2018
@Suchitra – That’s a great short story! Thanks for the translation…
I imagined Parvathy playing the character Devaki while reading it.
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Sifter
December 11, 2018
Can’t wait to see this movie now.
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Odiyan - *with creative inputs from Antony Perumbavoor
December 11, 2018
The title of this movie at first made me think this was a sequel to Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga…
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Honest Raj
December 12, 2018
To me, the title sounded like Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum.
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Govindam
December 13, 2018
The day is not too far, when every male in literature and cinema shall be demonised and the women would be made martyrs. Directors like Pa Ranjith have demonised male deities like Raman and Hari, what’s the big deal about mere mortal males? March ahead!
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Rajesh Balasubramanian
April 27, 2022
I just read the story விமோசனம்/vimosanam which is shot as the first episode Saraswathi in this anthology. The episode is excellently shot. But, I wonder why director Vasanth change some major parts of the story. Saraswathi character goes to a Swamiji to ask for solutions. The swamiji doesn’t have time for her meaning Swamiji and the tradition doesn’t have solution for her problem. Wondering why Vasanth tweaked that part.
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