Sudha Kongara, Vignesh Shivan, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Vetri Maaran give roles of a lifetime to actors like Kalidas Jayaram, Simran, Prakash Raj and Sai Pallavi.
Spoilers ahead…
Sudha Kongara’s Thangam is the perfect start to Netflix’s four-episode Paava Kadhaigal. It establishes the anthology’s theme in the broadest and loosest sense, and this theme is “honour”: maanam. Among the first images we get is that of Sathaar (Kalidas Jayaram) admiring himself in a mirror. “Himself” is probably not the right word. Sathaar would prefer “herself.” She is saving up for a gender-reassignment surgery and she refers to himself in the feminine, which must have been incredibly difficult to deal with in 1981, the time the film is set in. But then, with Sathaar, I suppose there wasn’t exactly an option. With her swinging gait and lilting speech, she is not “manly” in the conventional sense – whether she wanted it or not, she was always “out”. And so she probably thought she might as well go all out: line her eyes with kohl, dye her lips with betel juice, and hope that her love (for a man) is reciprocated.
This is a brilliant, unusual take on the idea of “honour”, which we usually – in the movies, and in these “Love Jihad” times – associate with caste and religion. Here, the word is linked to gender. The question shifts from “What if you are a Hindu and fall for a Muslim?” or “What if you belong to an oppressed caste and marry someone from a dominant caste?” to “What if you are a man and want to be a woman?”
Read the rest of this article at the link above.
Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
krishikari
December 19, 2020
I watched the first episode. It was quite touching but at times Sathaar’s mannerisms felt a bit overdone.
I really do feel Hindu-Muslim pairings were not such a big deal in the 80s.
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ini
December 19, 2020
Wonderful review, BR. I literally told the same line to my partner about the scene at the yoga studio. What a powerful image! I am glad you liked this. It feels weird that most other reviews are responding so vaguely. I could totally imagine people eating it up at a film festival. My favorite scene was one of the henchmen lifting Mr. Narikutti so he could switch on the mains that would kill Jothilakshmi. What irreverence!
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Karthik
December 19, 2020
Seriously dude! What’s wrong with you? It’s mediocre at best… bad cinema thrives because of morons like you. Disgusting
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ItsVerySimple
December 19, 2020
SPOILERS
The other “black comedy” that Tamil Queer folks went through : a story advertised as featuring two leading ladies, Prime-time TV ads featuring them kissing and confronting the family and talks of honour around it, director setting up the story from Scene 1 giving enough clues to assume they are in love, the declaration of two women being in love probably for the first time in a Tamil mainstream film, the kiss, and things slowly start to unravel, the men looking at the kissing thirstily in so many intercuts, one of the girls spouting some nonsense about how her father did not let her talk to boys and how she spoke to girls instead and voila she is a lesbian now, an unfunny joke around lesbian-espn repeated horrifyingly a hundred times, of course yeah fooled-you-they-are-not-lesbians!, reading gushing praise all around and trying to have a good laugh about this entirely terrible experience.
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Tina
December 19, 2020
Nice review.
But what BR – if we looked for blue we would have found blue also no… bloodu redu nu overa dhaan solringa!
Such a fine anthology and a befitting review sir.
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Raj
December 19, 2020
Vignesh Shivan’s movie didn’t work for me at all. I don’t have an issue of going the dark humor route, but a lot of stuff like Kalki’s fourth wall breaking talk and the final twist were executed poorly.
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Prasanna Ramachandran
December 19, 2020
spoilers
The Vetrimaaran episode haunts me. The gruesome exposition of a slow, painful death, the one-two punch to the audience that knows death is imminent, inevitable, the murder of the child before the mother, in the mother’s “hands,” so she dies twice as if to repent for her “sin” – I stopped breathing multiple times through that never ending climax. The world is an ugly, awful place, humans are a terrible species, and Vetrimaaran loves holding up that mirror lest we forget these facts.
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tonks
December 19, 2020
Have been away a while
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tonks
December 19, 2020
Just watched the first episode, and the melodrama was a bit cringe inducing. Felt it to be a clichéd, too.
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brangan
December 19, 2020
I want to apologise for a mistake.
I had referred to Sathaar using masculine pronouns, because the character is pre-operative and has not yet “changed” their gender.
But the edit desk pointed out that one’s gender is what one chooses to be seen as, and because Sathaar chooses to be seen as a woman, feminine pronouns should be used.
This has been changed in the copy.
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Naren
December 19, 2020
Thangam
Wonderful performance from Kalidas Jayaraman that very much made up for the PPK bust. Also, the impressive performance by Shantanu Bhagyaraj is an unexpected surprise. The quick turnaround and the enthusiastic support from Sathaar for her friend’s relationship with her sister is convenient and plot-driven. Everything that follows after that r all too familiar tropes, beaten to death in the 80s rural string of movies. The rustic speak and mannerisms r an emulation of Bala and the lighting and acting style r of Mani Ratnam. So, where is Sudha Kongara in all of this?
Love Panna Uttranum
The overall eccentricity is appreciated and the dark humour in two places as well. But the whole segment was nothing but uncomfortable awkwardness, be it the screenplay or the acting. Kalki was completely misused, be it breaking the fourth wall or spouting of lines in literary Tamil. Actors, especially Anjali shud’ve rehearsed a lot more. Campy and unrealistic antagonists, overuse of the lesbian-ESPN “joke” and the father turning high and mighty that’s unworthy of his characterisation. Him disappearing into the night out of shame wud’ve done more justice to the character. Another director who cudn’t help but preach, pontificate and extol the effects of love over hatred, this one went the extra mile and did an R&B number on that.
Vaanmagal
GVM missed it yet again . . . SURPRISE!!! Their words and expressions were often asymptotic to each other and to the situation at hand. The outcome of that meandering made both the leads seem terribly confused most of the time. The brother pops in and out making him disjointed with the already flimsy family dynamics. The mother’s moral code suddenly seems to b activated and in full force after the incident without any foreshadowing whatsoever. All those advices that she gives before that r nothing out of the normal and didn’t seem suggestive of anything particular of that character. Somehow, the children, not just the victim but the other two as well, seem to take a backseat and the parents’ struggle becomes predominant in the forefront. The castration sends out a very wrong message, violence being the obvious one, but the son’s action, misguided as it was, seemed to b the product of the inaction of the parents rather than guarding the honour of the family. Had the parents paid more attention to all kids equally and had been assertive with their son about the right course of action, this act of retribution cud’ve been avoided and the family honour wud’ve remained intact. This laissez faire attitude of the parents unjustifies the musings of the mother to go as far as pushing the daughter off the cliff. Hence, her blaming the society to have put such thoughts in her head only adds to the injustice of that characterisation.
Oor Iravu
Vetri Maran to the rescue. Finally there comes a screenplay and some worthwhile performances after all the squirming and the awkwardness from the previous segments. But even so, the father playing a nice guy until he gets the daughter back in the house . . . Kaadhal did that already all those years ago. The camera focus on the water container fetched by the father was a dead giveaway. They cud’ve masked it a lot better and the revelatory moment cud’ve been when the father yells at his wife to stop her from getting help. That wud’ve been a shocker to both the characters and the viewers, simultaneously. The daughter started fading away, words slurring, but the mother didn’t seem to react appropriately at that moment by yelling even more than before. She became all too quiet all of a sudden.
BR, u commented that PPK was bland when in reality that one required about 50 I.Q. points to come up to the level of “bland”. This one however was completely bland with occasional moments and some good performances from the actors.
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karthik299
December 19, 2020
I so wish the Vignesh Shivan episode was placed in the end so that the tension built could be eased. Vetrimaaran episode was my least favourite among all the 4 terrific episodes, maybe because it had the most obvious story.
GVM totally surprised with this outing despite being way out of his comfort zone. Simran’s performance was my favourite despite some terrific casting in the form of Kalki, Anjali, Prakash Raj, Sai Pallavi. Wish she did more of such GVM, Mani Ratnam roles. Totally aces it!
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Aditya
December 19, 2020
Three stories exhibiting good-to-great craftsmanship buoyed by some truly fantastic individual performances that unfortunately felt rushed – was an anthology of four stories at about an hour mark too hard of a sell?
But then there’s Vignesh Shivn…
My first thoughts for the first 15-20 minutes: How brash, audacious, and outrageous to think treat this subject in this manner.
Honestly, who amongst us haven’t looked down at our watches when an overlong movie tries to tug at that one remaining heartstring or belabor that last sermon? After all, even earnestness gets cloying. The black comedy, while often an uneasy fit, does at least seem like a warranted and intriguing approach.
But with the final twist? That reveal?
It’s not that this story was one that Vignesh thought needed some jokes for levity. It’s that the story itself is a joke to him. The initial read on the story serves as nothing more than misdirection to earn some “I’m so woke cool points” before he backs away to comfort more conservative sensibilities that, “Don’t worry, everything is cool and heteronormative.” Here’s some appallingly bad rap to go with it as well, because that’s probably within your cultural wheelhouse as well.
Stewing with this movie for a few hours has made me realize that, honestly that overly eager filmmaker with more messages than reels might not be so bad. They want to use their media to spark debate and change (never mind that their methods are often superficial or efforts often soporific).
But Vignesh Shivn’s attempt? It’s just a cynical ploy to push an idea so shallow that it can be sufficiently captured on a greeting card. And so, with some time and distance I revisit that assessment – how brash, audacious, and outrageous to think treat this subject in this manner.
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sujithra manoharan
December 19, 2020
@itsverysimple …Watched the movie after review…Disappointed u missed out on the absurd representation in vignesh’s movie…i get that u see films with characters and doesnt believe they should be socially responsible. But a wrong representation of taboo/ myth should be called out in the open…first absurdity of anjali’s character explain how she BECAME a lesbian…Nobody becomes one they r born that way…No amount of restriction from havin contacts with men will MAKE u a lesbian..this only validiates existing myth on a taboo subject. I had no qualms about making it a dark humour genre. But the twist at the end felt like the director wanted to play it safe .And someone please explain why ter were clues throughout like “namba matter terinja avalo dan” to mislead the viewers. No clarification or reason was given till the end. If you are not aware of the topic better dont make a film on it . This needs to be called out.
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brangan
December 19, 2020
karthik299: GVM totally surprised with this outing despite being way out of his comfort zone.
Actually I would argue that this was exactly in Gautham’s comfort zone: family and relationship dynamics. That’s what he’s been doing over and over in various forms all his career, sometimes as dramas and sometimes in the form of action movies.
If you mean the milieu as “out of his comfort zone”, then sure. Some people have pointed out that the representation of these people (i.e. this family) isn’t “true” or “authentic”. But it did not bother me at all. Maybe they are not speaking the slang/dialect perfectly, but the emotional connect is rock-solid and the filmmaking is beautiful.
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Sam
December 19, 2020
Was there a moment in the yoga studio when Prakash Raj changed his mind about the honor killing and walk out, before Sai pallavi calls him out? I ended up watching this episode first and it was gut wrenching…Impact was more than kaadhal may be because Prakash raj must’ve been a loving father and ends up killng his his favorite daughter (a pregnant one at that)
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Thupparivaalan
December 19, 2020
Vetrimaaran’s film was the pick of the lot for me. As you said this is an assured piece of work and shows what he is capable of as a pure filmmaker. Sai Pallavi gives an extraordinary physical performance, and it shows how much better our films would be when director get to collaborate with actors and actresses of their choice. The way the final scene was staged was superb. Sai pallavi’s mother is pushed into a room with no windows, and all she can do is scream, whereas Sai Pallavi gets a window to say what she feels. It felt like a metaphor for how this generation has the ability to express their feelings when it comes to choosing a partner of their choice even though it doesn’t get to live with their choice of partner, whereas the older generation has neither. Also this shows why Prakash raj is one of the all time greats, he gives a very internal performance of someone who has lived with his patriarchal values and even though he can understand Sai Pallavi’s decisions and her way of living, he cannot change because of his surroundings. Props to showing the rural Tamilnadu as the caste entrenched jungle that it is rather than the idealistic romanticized version that we’re often made to sit through.
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Anuja Chandramouli
December 20, 2020
Spoiler alert!
I love that our filmmakers are grappling with such provocative material more boldly than ever before but I am far less impressed with the results. I liked the ideas behind Sudha’s Thangam but perhaps she needed a full length feature to make it all cohere. The tragedy which overtook Sathaar who was such an interesting character felt very rushed, contrived and a little too melodramatic. Take Sathaar’s mum for instance… she went from being someone who was protective of her offspring (Mum knows that she is scared of the dark and has pissed her pants once before when forced to sleep outside like the men do) to a heartless monster who actually stands by and refuses this same offspring entry into the house condemning her to gangrape and murder? I just wasn’t convinced. And Sathaar says when her pal ribs her about her fear of the dark which she tries to mask as concern for her sister ‘Ava kooda raathiri thaniya poidalaam, ennaala poga mudiyadhu’ I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Seriously? it was safe for women to run around by themselves at night in the 80s? It is safe for women now?
Vignesh Shivan’s film was horribly jarring and hopelessly affected. Barring some remarkable performances from the likes of Padam Kumar and Jaffer, the entire thing was a washout. Poor Aadhi(Anjali) has been brutally murdered and her lover met a similar fate, but one of the killers gets away with belated repentance (and a heartwarming reunion with the surviving daughter) and the other is called a venomous whore and somehow that is adequate punishment for what he did? Seriously? And if that weren’t bad enough, Jothi is rapping with B – cube shortly after the gut -wrenching demise of her twin! And don’t even get me started on the gratuitous lesbian angle which went nowhere. Triple Ugh!!!!
Gautam Menon’s Vaanmagal was okayish with a career best performance from Simran. GVM was surprisingly good as well. But I found some parts too problematic for words. Portraying sexual assault especially where a minor is concerned calls for a degree of sensitivity that was somewhat lacking here. And all that talk about how she had become a ‘Periya Ponnu’ before her time because she was brutally abducted and raped really freaked me out! And I really wish our filmmakers would give it a rest with the vigilante justice schtick that plays out well in masala cinema but doesn’t work in these wannabe gritty and realistic films. These were issues which those preachy/messagey voiceovers (which are annoying on the best of days) simply could not fix.
Finally, Vetrimaaran’s critically acclaimed Oru Iravu did not really work for me. Perhaps it was because of the spoiler from GVM’s film or the determined air of hopelessness that hangs like a shroud of doom over this anthology.
An underlying theme prevalent throughout seemed to imply that caste and toxic masculinity are essentially problems in the rural areas. Another thing that struck me was the question of the rich – poor divide when it comes to inter – caste marriages. What if Aadhi (Anjali) had fallen in love not with a dalit driver but a doctor who is based in the city but has a heart of gold and spends the weekends healing the villagers? Would that be considered acceptable? It makes you wonder if folks tend to be more incensed when the spawn of their loins climbs down the social ladder by marrying an autokaaran or grease monkey (remember Bharath from Kaadhal) or Biryani parceller instead of taking up with a software person or Ambani’s kid with caste not being the biggest issue. Also Vetrimaaran’s film seemed to imply that the big city was a safer bet for couples who have married outside their caste and managed to find decent jobs that enabled them to afford housing in a respectable neighborhood. I wondered if that was really true since Sairaat and Kadhal and hundreds of newspaper headlines indicate otherwise.
Overall, PK had more misses than hits, despite it’s noble intentions. We are so used to our filmmakers churning out mindless drivel, clearly, critics feel compelled to celebrate mediocre, highly questionable fare provided it comes in artsy, pseudo – intellectual wrapping.
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Varsha Ganesh
December 20, 2020
This was a brutal watch. Vignesh Sivan’s was good until that stupid ending. When Anjali touches her father’s hands the same way he did, I thought there may have been some sort of a switch and the other one was alive after all and escapes. That might have been going all out on the non-serious territory.
I found GVMs short to be very cringe. He seemed a little stiff and uncomfortable too. But the revenge was very satisfying.
I wonder about the psychology and internal narratives of people who perpetrate these crimes in the real world. It doesn’t seem like they are straight psychopaths so how do non-psychopaths live with themselves after acts of such evil? I’m reading a book on psychedelics and how it opens people up to universal love and I can’t help but think how much better the world would be if we could lace MDMA in these people’s water.
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Enigma
December 20, 2020
Brilliant, brutal, too difficult to watch, what can I say. Gautham Menon’s movie was the best, really shook me. I wish he would make that into a proper feature film length movie and cast Kamal Hassan as the dad.
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SIDDHARTH KRISHNA.A.B
December 20, 2020
Seems like I’m in the minority of people who liked Vignesh Sivan’s work.
The twist at the end: maybe Penelope was actually a lesbian who had a crush on Jothi but later made a sacrifice and planned the escape to unite her with b3 ( just like sathaar in Thangam). And it would take a big heart for Jothi and b3 to later accept the father ( the same monster who got her sister killed for loving a guy from the lower caste has now become a man who would accept it even if his other daughter is a lesbian ).
And Jothi too gives a false explanation on how she became a lesbian because she is not one after all (no mis-representation hence proved)
In this segment there is a dialogue that says only sad endings of intercaste romances become hits and aadhi and the driver end up getting killed while Jothi and b3 unite (happy ending at the cost of an equally sad ending)
All these dark subjects are treated with so much humor and I was laughing throughout when I know I shouldn’t have. ‘ love panna vitranum’ was the most difficult film to make in this anthology and hats off to vignesh sivan for taking up this challenge and pulling it off so boldly. awesome bgm by Anirudh and terrific performances( jaffer especially)
Vetrimaaran’s was the best no doubt ,but this one was equally intriguing.
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brangan
December 20, 2020
SIDDHARTH KRISHNA.A.B: Absolutely. The only jarring note for me was the “karuthu song” at the end — but yes, in terms of tonality, this was the most difficult film to pull off and Vignesh Shivan did it magnificently.
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AntonEgo
December 20, 2020
Paava Kathaikal
Any art form!, primarily the popular one we know as “Cinema/ Films” holds this immense capacity of narrative fluidity a tale where you can justify your own take and bring out this context where the audience, well most of them who don’t engage in deliberate indulgence (i.e. Cinephiles, Passionate watchers) tend to fall for. Values can be manipulated, sabotaged and portrayed in a form that justifies a specificity of the story
,One witnesses that in abundance in Paava Kadhai, except may be the last concluding two part. I remember yesterday year writer duo Salim-Javed mentioning somewhere , why interval came in to being? and also how during the making of DON, as an after thought the filmmakers felt a song is needed since the flow was getting too intense for the audience. Similarly here the flow looks a bit flawed ideally 1234 should have been, 2134 thats my personal opinion given the intensity and the way the whole narrative goes a package as the grand scheme is common about cast race inter-faith in relation to honor values and taboos and societal norms.
A 2.5 3 hr movie still can be a mystery largely post the release of its trailer but sadly given the format of OTT anthologies given the length almost everything is revealed in the trailer itself so ironically there was no sense of novelty or surprises atleast thats how I felt while watching it.
Coming to the Part 1 **of the story its was too melodramatic, had all the goings of a typical protagonist victimization aggrandizing the pain and suffering with a series of unfortunate events .ala “Mother India” . Protagonist **(Sathar) **although gave his best but his physiological presence looked forced, the vulnerability staged which the inconsistent script made it worse. Gaping holes concealed with trickery and liberty of film making and worse there is nothing to take away you never come close to develop any form of empathy here, but it does have some amazing lines ( Did he or anyone ask you why you behaved like mens) and the scene which I loved purely for its depiction and not its organic presence in the screenplay is when “Sattar: breaks down in **“Thangams” embrace, baring such moments over all its an opportunity wasted.
Part 2
Black comedy for such a theme personally does not work for that matter its a big no for me, With the world going colder by minutes with humanity lost, with so many conflicts , inequality, suffering , Trivialising Death, Killing in the name of entertainment is something that I despise. Same goes here in this part where you have some amazing lines, but a very surreal narrative a.l.a. Anurag Basu meets Coen brothers / Tarantino , don’t feel like writing or I can’t write about things which I don’t feel for thats purely my personal opinion.
Part 3
I am dying to see Gautam (Monotone) Menon on the screen to give one new expression of all thats he managed to so far, his self-casting stands as sore thumb, A fine story in the lines of Raakh, and Gulzars fabulous Ghar if I may, but somehow the script lacks the richness any novelty, and over all the beautiful segment it could have been
OTT was supposed to provide a platform to relieve original / creative makers and take them off the pressure of following the statusquo , expectations but here sadly I don’t see any such bold move, it does desperately attempts to though. Simiran is amazing. I loved the concluding message and the ending dialogue at least a message worthy taking home so what it was confused and hazy.
Part 4
That takes the cake . Don’t have words to describe how beautifully written, performed, edited, this piece is its like you being paid fairly for all your endurance you went through. Kudos to Vetrimaran! to bring his own style and still doing justice to the theme. He is the closest someone can come to Mr. Ray or Benegal in contemporary film making. Even the extras and supporting actors the art direction was just mind blowing a clear winner of the lot, a true film making master class.
AG
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pankaj1905
December 20, 2020
Hi Sir,
As you said, “I wonder if the four directors were also asked to give variations on the colour red. It’s the shade of a shawl (or maybe a prayer mat) in Sudha’s episode.”
I thought that Saathar eating betel to give her lips a red color and Thangam giving her a red lipstick before leaving was also a play on the color red along with the opening credits in Sudha’s story.
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Commentoo
December 20, 2020
Vetrimarans was gut wrenching. I had to forward through the violent ending.
Didn’t even watch GVM’S beyond 5 mins.I find him cringey as an actor. Something about his acting looks like he is trying too hard to make it seem natural. Maybe even his direction to a certain extent. Just me feeling this way?
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Heisenberg
December 21, 2020
I felt the two stories (Vignesh’s and Vetrimaarans’s) that directly dealt with ‘honor’ killing in its most prevalent form – were somewhat sympathetic to the father character. They were showed merely like pawns in this act succumbing to societal pressure rather than as enactors. In the end both were not even punished by law and merely repent the sin like good men.
Probably the idea was to show these are murders not carried out by animals but by normal good men (fathers). But you neither wouldn’t want your audience to side with your antagonist and empathize with him.
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Heisenberg
December 21, 2020
Santhanu had a surprisingly pleasant performance. He was a natural fit for that story.
I really find Kalki as a very bad actor and it was horrendous to hear here speak in the tamil we’ve come to associate with hindi actors in kamal haasan movies.
For GVM this is a refreshing change to have a story set in small town. But he has a very distracting presence in front of the camera and would have been great to have seasoned actor in that role
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Heisenberg
December 21, 2020
Ironic turn of events for ‘Metoo’ episode in tamil cinema – ‘Metoo’ crusader Chinmayi and ‘Metoo’ accused Karthik have worked in the same project and tamil cinema has moved on like none of that ever happened.
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Dora
December 21, 2020
Narikutti calls one of the bearded henchmen “kgf “ !!! I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. However , the happy ending in France with the dad was jarring. Just because he “lets” one daughter live, how can he be forgiven?
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brangan
December 21, 2020
Dora: Just because he “lets” one daughter live, how can he be forgiven?
A movie’s job is to tell a story, not deliver a moral science lesson. Evil-doers go unpunished in real life ALL THE TIME. 🙂
That’s what I loved about Vignesh’s episode. It was a giant up-yours to political correctness, whether in the tone or in the storyline…
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Empty Musings
December 21, 2020
I think I might be in the minority, but for me Vignesh Shivn’s portion was the best. It’s as if he was having fun at the expense of those having outdated notions of love and honour. The whole segment where Anjali tries to explain lesbianism to her father was a riot. It was as if B3 and Anjali were taunting and teasing him. Is it ok to have a relationship with same sex if you aren’t allowed to have one with the opposite sex? If the issue is caste and class, what if the partner is beyond those definitions? The father was evidently squeamish, with no answers to what he probably saw were absurd questions. It is precisely because these exchanges were absurd, that the climax twist made sense. Anjali is not out to explain the true nature of same sex relationships, because it had no relevance to her situation.
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Srinivas R
December 21, 2020
@Heisenberg – Chinmayi and karthik have worked together? what? in PaavaKathaigal?
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Heisenberg
December 21, 2020
@srinivas – not exactly worked together but worked on same project. For GVMs movie, simran voice seems to be Chinmayis and the music is done by Karthik.
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SorenKierky
December 21, 2020
//That’s what I loved about Vignesh’s episode. It was a giant up-yours to political correctness, whether in the tone or in the storyline…//
Does a giant up yours to PC in itself warrant applause though? I mean the whole industry is pretty “un PC” as it is (as a norm). Not that I care for “political correctness” as such anyway, but it really matters the gaze with which the filmmaker treats these topics, surely.
Potential spoilers ahead
What really left a bad taste in my mouth was how the dad killed (or okayed it) her twin and their whole reaction to it. And the cringey father laughing at her calling the other guy “thevidiya” and whatnot scene. Forget sympathizing with the casteist/murderer, they just don’t seem to care enough about the dead sister. AT ALL. Not to mention the whole espn joke, and whatnot – terribly unfunny to boot. How does any of this work? Just pathetic and utterly banal writing and making all around.
Oh and overall, didn’t care for the whole thing. Vetrimaran’s one might have had interesting bits (and overall perhaps well made to an extent – and an absolutely terrific Sai Pallavi), but even that is just usual violence/shock treatment, nothing we’ve not seen before. Didn’t remotely have the effect of what, say, Sairat had on you. Was just hard to watch for obvious reasons.
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brangan
December 22, 2020
SorenKierky: Forget sympathizing with the casteist/murderer, they just don’t seem to care enough about the dead sister. AT ALL.
But. That. Is. What. Absurd. Black. Comedy. Is. 🙂
It’s not a logical universe at all. When you mix black comedy with absurdism, you cannot expect the thing to “add up” or “make sense” the usual way. Plot points and characters can appear and disappear. Everything and anything goes. And you definitely cannot “feel” for anything/anyone: this tonality just won’t allow it.
Hence the scene where the sister dies. It’s heartbreaking, gut-wrenching…. NOT! It’s not even there in the movie 😀 It’s now a mere “set-up” for the rest of the plot to unfold, and for us to see how/whether the second sister will get away.
It’s freaking brilliant writing, showing us something “conventional” (sister tells father about driver and pays the price) and then pushing us into an utterly unconventional universe.
Vignesh’s neatest trick is to remove the morality angle (“I will avenge my dead sister”) that one might expect, and replace it with absurdist black humour (“I’m just going to fuck over my father”).
The tonality really worked for me, because comedy is a great way to highlight how — yes — absurd casteism is.
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Abcd
December 22, 2020
@brangan I agree with most of the points that you have made regarding it being a black comedy. I tried to enjoy the move as that and actually liked major parts of it. The narikutty character was absurdist gold.
But how do you explain that pathos anirudh song in the middle which tries to empathise with the father? I felt that stretch ruined the tonality of the film which was set up brilliantly before that.
The climax escaping stretch following that was also underwhelming for me other than the predictable visha-thevadiya punch moment.
Again political correctness aside, i felt the twist at the end did not add much value to the movie and made the whole lesbian angle a gimmick. Personally, i would have loved a delicious quirky revenge in tune with the world that was created.
Vignesh shivan definitely deserves credit for this audacious attempt. But given how well the premise was established i feel it was a missed opportunity.
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brangan
December 22, 2020
Abcd: The songs, I feel, are a mistake in all three episodes. I think I mentioned this in the review.
As for the lesbian angle, I did not see it as a gimmick. Vignesh cleverly sets the angle up “visually” at the beginning, making us THINK Kalki and Anjali are a lesbian couple.
So when Anjali confesses, it seems to be a REAL confession. Because in our minds, we are still going back that early scene of the two women in bed etc. and we are saying: “Wow, she told her dad.”
Similarly, when the pathos song comes, we think it’s a REAL emotion — only now, we are being “aurally” tricked into feeling a feeling that isn’t legit.
And then, Vignesh pulls the rug out, saying: Anjali is straight. Dad is still a bastard. Etc.
Everything is so classical, right by the black comedy rulebook.
The only real bad thing about the ending for me was that preachy rap number at the end, that REALLY killed the irreverent nature of the episode.
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Abcd
December 22, 2020
@brangan 100 percent agree with you on the karuthu rap at the end.
I don’t accept the fact that the pathos song aurally tricked us into feeling something that isn’t legit. I was just plainly annoyed at that moment.
I also don’t think they ended with “Dad is still a bastard”. It appeared like they pushed a redemption arc for the father (croc tears with the sad song, letting daughter go, laughing at narikutty, becoming a rapper and all) which was not convincing at all for me.
You are right, the lesbian angle was hinted well from the very start and we were all expecting the confession to come at some point.
And when it comes, I wish they had at least explored more into the reaction and confusion of the casteist gang to the confession. To think about it – there was an ESPN joke, regular fetishising of the lesbian couple, some karuthu from B3 and then bang – the dad goes back to threatening her with murdering-sister-confession (then forces kalki to run away during the funeral).
I feel that is the reason why the twist was underwhelming for me. Because they just didn’t do anything worthwhile with the confession in the first place.
I for one was actually really intrigued about how this regressive gang would react to such a curveball in this whacky world. But we just get cliches.
Maybe i am nitpicking too much. It’s just that I genuinely feel this could have been something really special but Vignesh settled for much less.
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madhusudhan194
December 22, 2020
Interesting reactions to Love Panna Uttranum. The pathos song didn’t work for me either. It felt out of place. But I wondered what Vignesh Shivan would have with this material in a feature film. Some of the bits like the father’s change of heart certainly wouldn’t have felt rushed. But the film itself is interesting in so many ways. Watching a dwarf sized henchman bossing the large sized father around seemed like a brilliant visual equivalent of narrow minded thinking controlling the extraordinarily capable humanity. It is funny but is also smart filmmaking.
The setting may be a village but the gaze is clearly urban. He just looks at the horror that is unleashed and his anger just comes in the form of insulting laughs and swear words. He doesn’t try to empathize with the father / understand the whys and hows of honour killing. You can understand because he seems completely repulsed by it. It’s probably the angriest film of the lot. He just has one word for those still practicing it – Vesha thevidiya pasanga.
I had the same word for Prakash Raj’s character at the end of Oor Iravu. Vetri Maaran’s film was easily the best amongst the lot. I liked how he is trying to understand / empathize with this father but doesn’t expect us to. He doesn’t make his actions seem justified in any way. Shows the grisly horror for what it is. The greater horror comes from the fact that the system allows for these crimes and the law just doesn’t mean any justice.
There were a couple of lovely stretches of filmmaking I enjoyed in Vaanmagal. Like the scene where the younger girl’s kidnapping plays out with the mother’s advice to the elder one in the background. She’s telling her to cover herself, not to spread her legs and basically, pombalaya irukkanum. The staging of the kidnapping is a big “fuck you” to these lectures as none of them prevent sexual crimes in any way. But I didn’t buy the mother’s change of heart. Simran seemed to be growing into a murderous woman with no scope for any redemption and the ending just seemed like a cop out, an attempt to play safe / not disappoint the GVM fans – the people who love his women characters. Or maybe he just didn’t want to go there. He seemed a bit stiff initially but was terrific in his breakdown scene towards the end. The revenge aspect again didn’t work for me as it seemed forced.
I loved Sudha’s Thangam. It is melodramatic but that is the pitch she has chosen. It seems to fit and the performances are completely in sync. There was no feeling of rush and it moved smoothly.
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Ravi
December 22, 2020
The Dhina Thanthi poster in the shop where GVM buys something in the opening scene of Vanmagal gives away the ending of Vetri Maaran’s Oru Iravu. It had both Prakash Raj and Sai Pallavi’s pic with the news about vaLaikappu tragedy. No reviewer seemed to have caught that?
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hari
December 22, 2020
The order in which I liked the segments:- Sudha> Vetri > GVM > Vignesh.
If it was anyone else apart from Vetri then Vetri’s segment would have been on top. But having seen all of his work, this felt a bit underwhelming for me, felt like I have seen this all along.
GVM’s kept me jittery especially when they went back to the hill temple and GVM picks up the daughter to “fly” her. I was hoping against hope that he doesn’t throw her down. Any idea why they didn’t take the daughter to the hospital, was it explained? Or it is implied that taking her would have got their maanam in a kappal?
Kaalidas performance in Sudha’s segment was definitely the best of the lot. Moved me to tears this segment.
Vignesh’s I felt did not gel well with the rest of the segments. As a standalone piece I think it would have been awesome. What would have happened if they were indeed lesbians? Why he had to cop out?
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Archana
December 24, 2020
For me personally
Oor Iravu > Thangam > Love Panna Uttranum > Vaanmagal
While it was an interesting watch and there was a lot to like, the anthology was a bit of a mixed bag.
Oor Iravu:
Though not unexpected, this was so hauntingly emphatic. The scene is the yoga studio was my favorite too. So well written and performed that it stayed with me post the end. And like you pointed out the lack of background score I think added more to the depth of all thats left unsaid.Even with the shorter time frame, the characters were wonderfully nuanced. And the prolonged climax, however hard to watch was so well executed.
Thangam:
This was a close second. It’s really impressive that Sudha picks such a different milieu each time and is able to bring such a degree of authenticity to it. I am looking forward to seeing more from her. Loved all the performances and kudos to Kalidas’s refined and balanced potrayal of Saathar. I would love to see more of Saathar which we lose a bit once she decides to help her sister.
Love Panna Uttranum:
I could see where Vignesh was going with this and enjoyed parts of it, but I felt he could have still pushed the envelope further in terms of the dark humor and absurdity. Not all the bits landed for me. Everything post the Kalki & friends leaving, seemed like an after thought and not quite the same genre. Say Veerasimman falling in love with a French woman and Narikutty executing Veerasimman sounds more fitting.
Vaanmagal:
Despite a few great scenes with Simran, this was the most uneven and problematic even. There is something about the dialogues in GVM’s film especially in a non-urban setting that really pulls you off the characters and seem a bit cringeworthy. It was too busy and the bait and switch of Simran pushing Ponnuthayi and attributing it to society didn’t quite work for me. I wish there was more of an arc on whether her idea of honor has changed? Does she still place the onus on the woman to uphold it? I felt it was resolved too easily or the character arc was not setup to be more balanced to start with.
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Dora
December 24, 2020
I am still trying to wrap my head around the spoiler reference to Vetrimaran’s tale at the beginning of GVM’s tale. Was it intentional? Did Vetrimaran want us to watch his section with the full knowledge of what was going to happen, or did Netflix bungle this and accidentally switch the order of the episodes?
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krishikari
January 6, 2021
@archana There is something about the dialogues in GVM’s film especially in a non-urban setting that really pulls you off the characters and seem a bit cringeworthy.
As a non-native tamil speaker this was not a problem for me and cinematically this was the smoothest watch for me, amazing location with the shrine on the hilltop. What was a problem was the story choice, as in Vertimaaran’s film. In one story the mother cannot live with the dishonour and you see the women upholding the patriarchal system and the in the other the father does the gory deed. This is the current reality of society and there is no hope of change, That’s the message both these films give. What is the point of recreating us these stories exactly as we read them in the news? We have all seen Sairat, so no shock or surprise value here either. Why not offer a way out of this kind of honor trap?
I know cinema does not have to moral science lessons but these seemed kind of pointless, more like “how to” films. If not moral science, offer some other takeaway. Some years ago there was a documentary style story of a Vancouver Punjabi family contracting the murder of their daughter for running away with an auto rickshaw driver, and even that straight news story had a ironic ending, a satisfying denouement – the family was ostracized by the very society it tried to appease by doing the honor killing.
In Love Panna Uttarnum at least there is a glimpse of hope. And yes the tone, black humour and absurdity all worked for me and it was the most original and enjoyable of the lot.
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Sai Ashwin
May 8, 2021
Does BR have any traumatic experiences that he hates “messages/karutthu” so irrationally, or is he one of the those who only hates them when he doesn’t like the message, as in if he likes/approves of it then its a “tying up loose ends/denouement” like Super Deluxe. Doesn’t he realise the hypocrisy in this?
Apparently, making a film as a “fuck you” to the so-called “political correctness” warrants praise and applause but making a film to explore some societal issue is termed condescendingly as “activist films”, “message movies” etc.
And these are done mostly with Indian films, but the same film exploring some societal issue made elsewhere will be heaped with praises for its “boldness, daringness, etc” like Get Out or Parasite.
So, the upper class privileged folks in India love exploring other country’s/society’s problems but not their own, how cute.
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Odiyan Hater
May 9, 2021
@Sai Ashwin:
From what I have understood over the years, BR has no issue with a movie making a statement, but it should be a movie in the first place and not an advice/bunch of messages pretending to be a movie.
A lot of Indian moviemakers getaway with shoddy filmmaking because ‘the movie has a great message’ or ‘the movie is politically correct’ – this syndrome can be seen a lot in Malayalam cinema these days wherein movies that appeal to the ideals of today’s youth are praised like anything regardless of the quality of the movie. Look ar Joji for instance – it is supposedly anti patriarchy and is bold with a few cuss words thrown in and ppl love it. Films are also wish fulfilment for many, so a lot of ppl like a movie when what’s shown on screen is a validation of what they believe in. This holds true both for pretentious art movies and message movies where a woman is supposed to be kuthuvilakku…
For me personally, a 9ml is a great movie about women being humans just like men and having all the right to enjoy life and make mistakes jut like men and there’s no need for gender roles…but it’s a damn entertaining movie making that point
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Madan
May 9, 2021
Wait, is there really a message in Parasite? And if there is, do you find Captain Vijaykanth broadcasting it through a megaphone? I THINK it is the latter kind of messaging BR dislikes and I do as well. There is definitely a way to make a hard hitting movie without seemingly preaching the message in every dialogue. Arth and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron are good examples of that approach. More recently, Sairat or Trance.
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KayKay
May 9, 2021
“A lot of Indian moviemakers getaway with shoddy filmmaking because ‘the movie has a great message’ or ‘the movie is politically correct’”
Spot on! Subtext, messaging etc need to be the salad on the side…not the entire bloody steak, which is what many Indian movies seem to get away doing. Also, the Indian audience seems to have a greater appetite for this sledgehammer approach, right from the days when a Tamil “Family Movie” would climax with Major Sunderrajan or VK Ramasami gathering the clan together for a “wrap up speech” advising against the evils of materialism, extolling the virtue of marriage and the need for women to be the Family Bedrock or some such shit.
Hollywood seems to be increasingly taking this unsubtle approach as well nowadays with regards to peddling their Liberal Agenda. Have ranted about it at length elsewhere on this blog so won’t bore you again, but the recent FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER TV Show had 2 examples of how you can do racial commentary:
Subtle: Sam (The Falcon) visits an elderly Black Man and finds out, like Steve Rogers he had also been given the Super Serum but his existence has all but been erased. He was thrown in jail and experimented on repeatedly. What didn’t need to be spelt out was the difference in treatment to 2 men who were both enhanced. The White Steve Rogers was widely lauded and publicized as Captain America while the Black Man was a Dirty Secret to be erased and used as a Lab Rat.
Sledgehammer: 2 cops pull over Bucky and Sam as they are arguing in the middle of the street. The cops walk up to the White Bucky and ask him “Sir, is this man bothering you?” while looking at the Black Sam. Because these are apparently the only 2 cops without a smart phone and a TV because Sam is The Falcon and the latest Captain America and has been on the news for years!
Which of the 2 approaches do you think Indian movies frequently resort to?
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H. Prasanna
May 11, 2021
@Sai Ashwin I think I kind of get your frustration. I have been there myself. See the reply I got for a similar comment from BR:
H. Prasanna: I’m not sure I entirely get you, but just for the record, I am not against messaging in the movies. I am only against obvious and wordy “placard messaging”
And he sticks to this. He makes it a point to give the movie any benefit of doubt when it comes to messaging. He looks for the nuance, the messaging is incidental. As you can see in these reviews, he does not talk about how well the movie delivered the message. He talks about how well the movie was made, how the characters stood out, how nuanced the stories are, etc. For a lesser message film, you can get this from his review of Draupathi, for example. I feel the reason he talks about messaging in movies so much is that so many of our/their movies have messaging. I think BR primarily believes cinema is not a good message delivery system. But he doesn’t impose these beliefs in his reviews. He tries to give a broader context of how the film worked for him, whether there was messaging or not.
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