Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/peranbu-mammootty-ram-movie-review-mammootty-plays-the-gentlest-ram-hero-in-rams-least-angry-most-moving-drama/
At heart, Peranbu (Big love) is a highly charged story about a father (Amudhavan, played by Mammootty) and his cerebral palsy-afflicted daughter, Paapa (Sadhana) — but it turns out to be writer-director Ram’s quietest film. And the quietness is in the filmmaking. In the opening shot, watching Amudhavan on a boat with Paapa, we wonder what’s in store. Through a voiceover, we get Amudhavan’s matter-of-fact answer: “En vazhkayila nadandha sila vishayangal…” (A few incidents from my life.) These are huge upheavals, but the way he describes them – the line – is quiet. Mammootty’s performance is powerfully quiet. Theni Easwar’s cinematography is quiet — in a series of frames within frames, shots of Amudhavan and Paapa come to resemble an album of still lifes. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is quiet, with the barest acoustic guitar strumming. Ram appears to have expended all his angst on his globalisation trilogy (Kattradhu Thamizh, Thanga Meengal, Taramani). Here, he’s almost meditative. In terms of tone, it’s the closest he’s gotten to his guru, Balu Mahendra (more on this connect later).
The first half of Peranbu is set in the middle of nowhere, and in the midst of nature. It’s a place filled with bird calls, rolling mists, soft shafts of sunlight. The walls of the very pretty house Amudhavan and Paapa begin to live in are made of wood. There’s no electricity, no mobile connectivity, nothing non-natural. Even the father-daughter bonding occurs not through toys made of plastic but over birds and a horse and countless stars. In the second half, the film moves away from this Eden, to the city. Paradise is truly lost. A couple is caught kissing. A television set makes its appearance, with suggestive songs and dances from the kind of films Ram doesn’t make. But this isn’t an empty exercise in “the big city is bad” school of filmmaking. The urban space is an extension of nature, too. It’s just that this version of nature — which also depicts man’s nature — is built with brick and cement.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Honest Raj
January 30, 2019
I’d earlier decided not to watch this film after seeing this:
It’s good to see Mammootty back in Tamil after a long time!
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brangan
January 31, 2019
The video review is up.
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vinjk
January 31, 2019
Looks like someone has taken lot of inspiration from your Peranbu review
https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/movie-review/peranbu-movie-review-rating-mammootty-ram-5562395/
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BR Reader Since 10th Grade
January 31, 2019
Finally BR Approves a Ram movie?
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Manikandan
February 2, 2019
Episodic essayist take on psyches of the fringe masses – A long battle fought daily – an earnest appeal for Right to desire in the times of globalization- attempts to narrate the joy and burden of life in same breath with partial success marred by few commercial clichés. Mammooty & Theni Eswar delves the film into graceful subtlety and Silence for the audience to reflect, Ram hurries the Audience with his writing. The title name “Peranbu/ Resurrection” and the episode names “Natures’ Natures” desperately tries to connect and match the grinding, moving turn of events into didactic sermon. This film is less dramatic amongst Ram s All, credit to Mammooty, with lesser assumptions and clichés, we would have had a” The measure of a Man” (Stephane Brize ,2015) in Tamil. A good attempt by Ram keeping in mind the audience s fervour for Closure and morality. Mammooty shines through in not overstating joy and burden of Life.#Peranbu
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கோ
February 2, 2019
“… the ending, which is revolutionary as an idea but appears forced …”
I think it appears so because there seems to be a major flaw with the core idea of the film. Peranbu has two stories running parallely,
A story: Amudhavan’s struggle to come in terms with Papa’s coming of age.
B story: Amudhavan and Papa seeking acceptance from the society.
Usually B stories are there to help A story develop into its logical solution which is done here via the subplot of Viji and Meera. Also Amudhavan seeking a male prostitute for her child is the actual climax followed by the resolution in the beach. The A story is resolved there.
But by going for an anti-climax of suicide, marrying Meera and delivering the title message through the B story, the power of A story got diminished completely and we are forced to leave the theatre with confusion of “what the film actually tries to say?”
Inverting the A and B story, spending more time with Meera and Amudhavan after the beach and before the village scene at the film’s climax could have given us some clarity of the filmmaker’s vision.
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கோ
February 2, 2019
“Ram’s films have always displayed love for his protagonists. In Peranbu, we sense much love for the medium, too.”
His love for the medium is evident from his first film itself. Who can forget the well placed match cuts in Katradhu thamizh and the location framing in ThangaMeengal? Here the choices seems to be Bergmanistic limited space framing where you can find foreground, middleground and background in each frame with interesting lighting choices in the first half, playing most of the scenes in single frame of one actor instead of the traditional two shots, action/reaction edit pattern, keeping the shots to the bare minimum.
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கோ
February 2, 2019
“Ram says he builds his films on a “thesis” — this time, the thesis is nature”
The fact that we are able to find inciting incident(Amudhavan’s wife leaving him), plot points I(Finding Papa has attended age), A and B stories, fun & games(The comic part with Viji’s husband), Midpoint(Amudhavan pitying for Anjali’s family- part of character arc), all is lost moments/plot point II(Amudhavan’s failure to stop his Papa’s sexual intuitions), the eventual climax and resolution in a film that is proposed to be made of a thesis is interesting. Another reason to not think about what the filmmaker propounds his movie to be in a interview and analyse it objectively.
Not sure if splitting the film into twelve chapters based on nature is a way to hide thesis but it sure didn’t hide the inherent three act structure in the film
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Rajesh Balasubramanian
February 2, 2019
@கோ: First of majority of people coming to read BR are budding filmmakers or film enthusiast
I don’t know whether it is true. BR would probably have more idea.
Let us do a quick estimate. This blog shows that 3K people are following BR posts. If I estimate it modestly, assuming top 50 directors (one director per week in a year), and 10 assistant directors per week, hardly 500 people from film industry would be genuinely following it.
Going by the view count of filmcompanion south videos (excluding celebrity interviews such as Kamal, Karan), BR’s interview videos has a solid 50K view count. You know what, the FEFSI association has only 25K members. Let us assume a movie is made in 3 months, and in each movie some 500 people are working. and we are get 50 movies every 3 months.50 x 500. Only 25000 people are working in Film industry. Of which, hardly some 10% – 2500 would watch BR’s videos.
So, my estimated guess is most viewers of BR’s opinion (not review) are not from film industry. They are non-film people. Let me tell you why I am coming to BR’s blog for more than 6 years now (since Soodhu Kavvum if I remember correctly).
1) His opinions has had a significant impact on how I view a movie.
2) I invest time my time more wisely in movies than before.
3) It has educated me why I shouldn’t get carried over by manipulation done by directors .
4) BR’s opinion has taught me to appreciate small small things that we often fail to notice. I remember a writer saying about reading literature ”இலக்கியம் என்பது தீவிரமான விஷயங்களை மிக சாரணமாக எந்த ஒரு நாடக தருணம் இல்லாமல் சொல்லிவிட்டு செல்வது” (literature is something in which a dense truth is said without any drama). Most readers miss it. A serious reader who invests time into reading will be careful over those lines. He will not skim it. He will think about it and self analyse it. where as a time pass reader will just skim it (நுனிப்புல் மேயற்து). For e.g, in Kalyana Samayal Saadham BR said we should build a little shrine for Prasanna for not breaking into a song after Lekha accepts his FB request.
“As for Prasanna, you want to build a small shrine for him simply for agreeing to play this part in a cultural climate where heroism is synonymous with machismo. He’s wonderful in the scene where he sees that Meera has finally accepted his Facebook-friend request. He’s earned it, and he doesn’t pump a fist in the air and go crazy — there’s just a small smile. This is a subtler breed of hero, who doesn’t need to advertise his emotions in neon lights, and whose masculinity is defined not by his prowess in the sack but by the fact that he lets his woman be who she is, who she wants to be. We’re not likely to see the likes of Raghu or Meera in a hurry, so I forgave them their overblown, la-la-land fantasy moment at the end. They deserve it.”
I don’t know if there is any review in Tamil cinema which highlighted the above fact
5) His reviews has helped little bit contributed for me to be a better person and also evolve
6) His thought provoking questions in interviews has helped me learn about the thought process, ideologies of the directors, music directors etc. They are not just some gossip interviews. For e.g, in Director Ram’s interview with BR… Ram refers to a poem ”புறாக்கள் வளர்க்கும் எதிர்வீட்டுக்காரன் எங்களிடமிருந்து பறிக்கிறான்
பூனை வளர்க்கும் சுதந்திரம்” by Na. Muthukumar. Such things comes out only if there is an earnest discussion. Only when someone deep dives.
7) From non-cinema point of view, it has helped me to improve by reading comprehension a lot. though not a big fan of vocabulary it has helped me learn the advantage of using apt words which also improves my diversity of knowledge. It has helped me to develop patience to read longer essays (more than 500 words) and also read English books etc.
அறிவது ஒவ்வொன்றும் அறியாமையே . எனது அறியாமையை குறைத்த BR க்கு நன்றி
Thank you BR. I/ We adore you.
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Viswanath K
February 4, 2019
Peranbu, directed by Ram tells the story of a father and his challenged daughter and how he get to know the world around him by the life that was created for him by his daughter, his family. Let me begin with the world-class cinematography by Theni Easwar. The guy was unknown before this to me but was convinced without a trace that world would get to know him through Peranbu. First half is set amidst the beautiful landscapes of Theni before shifting to Chennai suburbs in the second. With his superb technical quality and clever handling, he quietly showcases the fact that cities are ultimately a ruthless extension of nature . Backed by the director’s philosophy of being raw than dramatic and longer shots demanded camera to be moulded most of the times, Theni Easwar replied with some stunning frames and a scintillating timelapse. Apart from the forced ending, screenplay is sharp,bold and boasts quality. The fact that BGM has to be part of atleast 60% of the scenes proves an uphill task for any Music director, Yuvan Shankar Raja literally blew me away with his work. Director Ram’s hunger and excitement of ending a long 9 year wait to unite with Mammootty for this project is evident and so is his desire to exploit the legendary actor in what maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity. In the midst of a memorable performance from Sadhana and notable ones from Anjali, and Anjali Amir, Mammootty was at a different level. In a league of his very own. Mammootty’s Amudhavan is on par with his very bests so far.
I had a mixed feeling after watching the film , realising no film or director had tried exploiting the class and quality in Mammootty like this,since a decade maybe in Malayalam industry. Certainly mollywood was not lacking in quality by any means. So the problem is in the mindset. Let us start believing such class is the real mass. Let us believe, 100cr movies will not take an industry forward but films and performances like these do. Peranbu is a father’s heart- touching lullaby. A modern day masterpiece.
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Pradeep CK
February 4, 2019
A lovely nugget of a movie. The story could have been written in a totally different way in other hands, but this too is a way (improbable perhaps) in which it could have unfolded. I did not understand why Amudhavan had to go into exile to bring up his daughter – an other man may have shouted for help, especially with a daughter.
Did he have to meet a trans woman? Did he have to be cheated by the first one, would something like this have happened in real life ? He might just have got an older servant.
The second half was gritty, raw and all too real. A very hard fall and gave a sense of the choices one has to make when there is no money. Again, it was difficult to believe that there is so little goodness in the world; in the real world there are good people everywhere. They give up their seats in buses, sometimes help with money, and other times with their time.
But I loved it for the little things, the vulnerability of Amudhavan, the ordinariness of things that happen, the awkwardness of Mammooty, and the current of events that carry him and his daughter into deeper eddies.
Especially the a fabular quality in the first half – and a fabular feeling is what dads go through when a daughter enters their life. What a dad feels internally in those heady early years is personified using nature, swirling mist, and hills, and horse and bird.
And what a performance by Mammooty. Never have I seen him so helpless, so powerless, so loving, and so inert. Couldnt help imagining Mohanlal seguing naturally into that role, but then this is another way it could have happened too…..
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doctorhari
February 5, 2019
Never in a million years would I have imagined that some one would have the courage to make such a honest, taboo-breaking Tamil movie around the sexual feelings of a teenage child with spastic paralysis and her father! Stunning is the word that comes to mind.
However, the movie had a few jarring notes too.
Just because his daughter is coming to terms with her newfound sexuality, would a father go to the extent of finding a gigolo for her? The shock of what I was seeing didn’t let me think while watching. But when I reflect back, that seems too far-fetched and Raam-ish!
And the final few scenes, as you have said felt unnecessarily rushed. Some breathing space for Amudavan’s feelings as he comes to realise Meera’s love would have made the last chapter of the movie even more impactful, I felt.
But boy, what a gem of a movie!
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krishikari
February 6, 2019
@ doctorhari “Just because his daughter is coming to terms with her newfound sexuality, would a father go to the extent of finding a gigolo for her?”
Especially at the age of 14! But I could just about buy this because Amudhavan is new to this whole daughter raising and has no frame of reference. He has to invent his own process all alone, or so he thinks, so he makes strange decisions.
@கோ I thought the B plot was more about learning to trust and accept help from others. Also about marginalised people sticking together. Lots of themes. I’m still not sure whether I liked the film totally but it certainly held my attention throughout. Some in the theatre were walking out. In Kerala it was shown with English subtitles.
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Aravindan R (@rnadnivara)
February 6, 2019
doctorhari/krishikari: An introverted call taxi driver having to make “strange” decision would have been acceptable/believable, had the tone were 100% drama/fiction. People do make seemingly strange decisions based on limited available information and experience. However, as the sexuality aspect of the movie borders on documentary tone (Samuthrakani scenes), this strange decision should have been balanced out / rounded off with hints on how to deal with it.
And, after watching BR-Ram interview, I could appreciate the Iyarkai thesis. I liked the chapter name metaphors – though ‘iyarkai vidhigal atradhu’ etc. gave away what is going to come.
I think Peranbu is a very important film for pushing the boundaries and poetic making.
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Manikandan
February 6, 2019
At Hindsight after so many reviews of #Peranbu I feel director has not grasped it fully – premise of the movie is moving but scenes and writing are not fully satisfactory – more puzzled by audience reaction of”how blessed you feel after watching the trails of this family’s struggling life?” Dear BR, Is it the correct way of looking at things – an unresolved question ?
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krishikari
February 6, 2019
@aravindan “this strange decision should have been balanced out / rounded off with hints on how to deal with it.”
Perhaps it should have been. I did not however get the documentary feeling you did although there was a lot of information being imparted. The section with the isolated wilderness house and Viji turning up felt like pure dreamy fiction and then the city part was like being roughly woken up to face reality.
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doctorhari
February 6, 2019
@krishikari – ‘But I could just about buy this because Amudhavan is new to this whole daughter raising and has no frame of reference. He has to invent his own process all alone, or so he thinks, so he makes strange decisions.’
Is it that, or is it, ‘Anyway no one will marry my daughter. If this sex-thing attracts her, to the extent of kissing a hero on TV, let she experience the joy once’ kind of thing? Like a doting father buying a keyboard for his child who’s interested in music.
Also, I was wondering with the subsequent scene of Amudhavan blowing those soap bubbles in the beach, if Ram is implying he was successful in his search.
But I couldn’t understand what pushes him to suddenly arrive at the decision of jumping into the sea with her. Too rushed those scenes were.
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krishikari
February 7, 2019
@doctorhari “Like a doting father buying a keyboard for his child who’s interested in music.”
Yes, totally. That may well be his rationale for all his fatherly decisions, starting with the horse.
Not sure, what soap bubbles have to do with anything other than giving her another moment to enjoy. Obviously he did not go through with the sex idea and is in despair after the mother did not even ask about her and all the other failures to secure a good life for themselves.
But agree that the ending seems rushed when you compare it to the very deliberate pacing of the beginning and middle.
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brangan
February 8, 2019
One thing to be remembered here is that Ram’s films are not “natural” at all. In the sense, they are not depictions what “normal” people would be like. Lke Gaspar Noe or Lars Von Trier, he revels in provocative extremes — and till this film, he was struggling with the “cinematic language” to couch these “extremes” in. The reason Thanga Meengal doesn’t work is because it is too mainstream a narrative style, and these “extremes” begin to border on the bizarre. But here, he has fashioned the film in a mature art-house style. This style distances the emotion, makes it abstract (i.e. we are not asked to cry etc.). That is why this film works so well.
The reason I wish to point this out is that — otherwise — it’s not just the end (the male sex worker bit etc) but even the start that is bizarre and extreme. However clueless a father is, in the “normal” world, he will never take his daughter away to a place where there are no doctors, no help – just because people say they can’t put up with the girl. This is very much a Ram “extreme.” Peranbu may be the beginning of a new Ram who has finally found a style to match his subject matter.
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krishikari
February 8, 2019
BR appreciate you giving us the film appreciation context!
It may be that Ram’s other films are more like Lars van Trier’s in that they are not naturalistic, I can’t say as I have not seen them but this one doesn’t come across as that kind of film when seen in isolation. The characters are doing offbeat things but everything they do is plausible in our natural world though it does have a dream like feel in the beginning. Even the sexworker thing is questioned and explained within the movie. In a Lars Von Trier film such actions just have to be taken at face value because they are so obviously not naturalistic. Also he has used a warm, familiar Mamooty to tell this story, it does not have that distance that a colder actor might have given. Anyway intention doesn’t matter right?
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krishikari
February 8, 2019
But if you are suggesting that this film should not be read like a mystery with a logical solution tying up all ends neatly, totally with you on that.
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doctorhari
February 9, 2019
@krishikari – ‘What does soap bubble have to do with it?’
Playing with soap bubbles, dancing in rain/puddles etc are tropes our directors use to express a surge of joy in the characters. With that scene coming after the scene where he pleads with a lady for a male prostitute for his daughter, I was wondering if Ram was implying something.
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bart
February 11, 2019
A movie that raises a lot of questions during (logical) and after (reflective) the watching. Ram’s movies in general raises a lot of questions during the watch – his idiosyncrasies which just will seem the first-half of the word to a few. Here too, the choices the father makes – moving out to that remote location, getting a horse(!), accepting a stranger in house without questioning, seeking a male company for a teen daughter etc. Further, the Ram’s conveniences – what was the protogonist’s idea of sustaining their life at that remote place? Is he wealthy enough to sustain for life or atleast does he try to find any means of income there? Why does that become a problem only on being forced into the city? He tries reaching out to his ex-wife but isn’t shown trying the same with his own family. But all these questions and many more are swept aside by the tone and the larger content the movie drives towards.
It is just pensive and hugely medidative. Aided by subtle performances, never getting into a tear-jerker mode makes it an extremely gratifying watch. You were bang-on interms of Ram getting closer to Balu Mahendra’s way of story-telling. It is like the seeping cold that you see in the visuals, which slowly gets in and shivers you. It makes you think deeply of life in general, yourself and people all around and there it succeeds like no other. Great Love!
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Manikandan V
February 11, 2019
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Gautham
February 12, 2019
I agree with BR.
Mammooty’s character is less of a, well, character and more a metaphor/receptacle of Ram’s ideology. The spine seems to be an evolution of Mammooty’s worldview from one that demands a reality that fits his idyll, and a bargaining stance of being able to receive, or give, love only if that condition is met, to a more forgiving – and accepting – worldview that is accommodating to the multitudes of deviations and deviances from the norm or the median.
(He could be a metaphor of ideology itself – from a neglect of the human angle, by having it ancillary to his doctrine, to later having it subservient to human interests.)
He is able to love and accept – and contrariwise sense the love and acceptance of – Paapa, only after his acceptance of Meera.
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brangan
February 12, 2019
Peranbu: The Crisis Of Masculinity And The Question Of Sexual Pleasure
https://www.filmcompanion.in/peranbu-the-crisis-of-masculinity-and-the-question-of-sexual-pleasure-ram-mammootty-metoo/amp/
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Gautham
February 12, 2019
I might have added this to my earlier comment to make myself clearer:
Paapa is the only person that fits his utopian dream initially. Everyone else is jettisoned, as soon as a reason which is expedient enough is found (Anjali and her husband, the room he takes up after moving to the city, this might be a stretch but even the cab driver he parks next to, etc).
Paapa, too, begins to gradually become incompatible with his desired reality, as she discovers her sexuality. His interactions with Paapa become akin to those that he shares with Meera – half-hearted and his ego focussed upon soothing his id rather than any genuine attempt to understand and meet Paapa’s or Meera’s desires – with Meera and Paapa merely becoming people with whom he hasn’t yet found an excuse to reject. This precipitates the precipitous fall in his desire to live. His attempts to find her a prostitute, too, are self-serving – and thus rendering her age moot.
He finally seems to have found a middle ground, where he has found a compromise between his desires and those of others; and between the imagined and the real (If I recall right, his garden had a few bare brown spots). By accepting Meera’s womanhood, he is able to embrace Paapa, and reality, more fully.
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Recovering Macaulay Perapulla
February 13, 2019
Was it just me who felt the director had subtly alluded to incest in the documentary portions where the parents of the spastic children narrate how they deal with their children’s sexuality? At one point, I felt that this movie might go into that territory as well.
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Ruminating Aesthete
February 13, 2019
There are many a times, especially of late, you see Indian films filled with facile metaphors and crass symbolism. However this movie is not such a piece. The metaphors be it the house, the horse, the use of light, the frame within the frame – feel organic, purposeful, not enforced, moreover flow with the script. Though thematically and content-wise Dheepan might be different from Peranbu, I smelt Dheepan in Peranbu.
Though there is constant mention of nature I felt humanity was the overarching theme. When Mammooty runs away from humanity to an idyllic boxed up existence – humanity has a way to ooze in and yank him out. Similarly when he gets cooped up in a room with his daughter and he in a car. It yanks him out to face the realities through the omnipresent television. The beach is one such occasion – just wished it had been longer.
As pointed out by BR, the end seemed not so organic unlike the rest of the film.
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Ruminating Aesthete
February 13, 2019
Read that piece by Venkateshwaran. It was thought provoking. I think this film is primarily based on Amudhavan and his character arc. The entire film is from his perspective. So it would not have been organic had the screenplay been based upon paapa’s character arc. Amudhavan by definition is not sophisticated or progressive enough to understand or deal with his daughter’s sexuality- and that I feel is his character’s handicap. As a Pediatrician I come across many Parents of adolescent children with cerebral palsy go through this problem.
U need to write a different screen play if you have to dwell on the restrained and smothered sexuality of a cerebral palsy kid. Something like Margarita with a straw
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Ruminating Aesthete
February 13, 2019
Conscious activism of any kind, through art, I feel defeats the entire aesthetic purpose. An auteur provides us with an experience, with it organically and sub-consciously he bares a part of his conscience.
If let’s say we had someone like Christy brown writing about the sexuality of a cerebral palsy person then I think it would be organic and more sincere. The variable of foremost importance that helps us when evaluating an art piece, I feel is sincerity.
A dad in real life, when writing a story that involves a cerebral palsy girl, I think, would organically assume the role of her dad. I guess that is what happened in this film. Complaining that the director was not sensitive enough to give more importance to the sexuality of the child I feel is actually insensitive. After all Amudhavan is not a sophisticated, progressive dad. Moreover films don’t have to be propaganda pieces for your own beliefs. But I do accept that your beliefs somehow find their ways into your work – but this should happen organically.
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Purple Sky
January 19, 2020
I got to watch the movie only yesterday (Thanks to Amazon Prime). I just realise, I am the outlier here, because the decision of the father to move out of civilisation made perfect sense to me. Seeing the way people around him were reacting to Paappa, the stigma that both of them were being subjected to (because of the palsy and wife running away), even I thought the best option is to go somewhere away from “civilisation”. Maybe the fact that, I’ve been thinking a lot about a home similar to the one they showed is the reason. Or the fact that I strongly believe – nature heals. Here the girl has the freedom to be herself. If she screams there is no one to scold her for that. If she want to roam around, she can do so, without any apprehensions of scorn or stigma. This is so much better than being locked up in the room all the time. And animals sometimes understand weakness and are gentler than human beings. How many times we have seen dogs behaving more gently with babies than with their adult owners.
And as a man, it must never have crossed his mind that she is a growing child reaching maturity. Until that moment when he saw blood on the sheets. He is dumbstruck by this and that is also captured beautifully. Of course her mother knows. But then she has decided not to stick around. And he does what is best in that situation.
I couldnt believe it when they showed the father searching for a male prostitute. Not because it is atrocious (though it is). While watching the movie, actually that thought had crossed my mind as the only solution. But of course it is ridiculous and I never thought it will be depicted in screen.
I am astounded that Mammootty had agreed to work with this script. But then they were actors first, long long time ago. The word ‘gigolo’ by a fellow comment or sparked the memory of another Malayalam movie where the father gifts a toy – a live, breathing, handsome “Kalipattam”, for his terminally ill daughter. So some shades of this theme has been explored before in cinema, though in that case it was only the “Kalipattam’s” POV.
Come to think of it, what do we do as parents to boys and girls who have come of age? We send signal to them (because we will never speak openly about it to them) that these things needs to be suppressed. Decades back they were married off as soon as they come of age. But now that is demonised as “child marriage”. And now we don’t even know what to do with our “normal” teenagers, let alone differently able ones.
The ending again also didn’t feel abrupt for me, cause in my mind I was able to fill in the dots very easily from the suicide attempt to happiness. This is an age old trope where the person falls in love with the one who saves. Usually in our movies it is the man who saves and the woman who swoons. And this is mostly accepted as an explanation. But when the same is shown as the woman (or trans person) is saving the man (like here or in Kaattru veliyidai) that is not easily accepted.
Ram is always know to push the boundaries of “normal” thinking. I know, because he pushed me to the extremes of revulsion with his Kattradhu Tamil MA. So much so that I always approach his movies with trepidation. Again he has managed to explore some more extreme emotions, but looks like this time around, my thoughts have synced many times with his and that has been my biggest surprise after watching this movie.
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