PA Ranjith’s Film Is An Elevating And Thought-Provoking Experience

Director
Pa
Ranjith’s
Natchathiram
Nagargiradhu
Tamil-language
musical
with
English
subtitles,
complements
his
completion
of
10
years
in
the
film
industry.
A
director
whose
five
films
have
hitherto
encompassed
unsparing,
hard-hitting
discourses
on
socio-political,
cultural
fronts
with
caste
and
class
as
cornerstones,
Pa
Ranjith
now
wades
into
the
vagaries
of
love
and
romance
with
special
emphasis
on
ideology,
politics,
gender,
caste,
and
honour
killing.

The
filmmaker
marks
this
film
as
a
contemporary
take
incorporating
all
forms
of
gender-based
love.
So
you
have
heterosexual
and
queer
characters
in
a
cosmopolitan
set-up
coming
together
to
enact
a
musical
theatre
experience.
References
to
Music
Maestro
Ilaiyaraaja’s
influences
on
the
idea
of
love
itself
are
very
much
in
play
here.

Love
flourishes,
couples
break-up,
and
come
to
terms
with
their
own
fallibility,
and
rehearsals
go
on
despite
all
the
relationship
hiccups
that
occur
along
the
way.

Story

The
film
begins
as
a
man-woman
love
story
between
a
hip
Dalit
girl,
Tamizh
who
prefers
to
be
called
Rene
(Dushara
Vijayan),
and
Iniyan
(Kalidas
Jayaram),
an
upper
caste
man.
They
belong
to
the
same
drama
troupe
of
assorted
performers
who
together,
led
by
their
director
Subier
(Regin
Rose),
are
in
the
process
of
organically
developing
an
experimental
musical
play,
themed
around
love.

In
fact,
the
individual
love
stories
of
the
cast
members
intertwine
with
the
narrative
of
the
play
they
are
preparing
to
enact.
Rene
is
an
Ilaiyaraaja
fan
and
believes
in
the
urban
legend
that
there
can
be
no
love
without
Ilaiyaraaja’s
music
playing
in
the
background,
while
Iniyan
goes
into
a
rage
at
that
very
idea.

But
their
relationship
is
not
the
only
one
to
take
a
heavy
beating.

There’s
also
a
male
chauvinist,
Arjun
(
Kalaiyarasan)
who
wants
to
become
a
cinema
hero
with
the
regular
trappings,
and
joins
the
troupe
in
the
hope
of
getting
a
break.
His
narrow-minded
transgressions
concerning
love
hita
boulder
when
the
entire
troupe
turns
on
him.

Ranjith’s
film
boldly
talks
about
the
politics,
the
emotional
blackmail,
the
manipulations
and
the
corruptions
that
families
and
political
Neanderthals
employ
in
order
to
safeguard
the
existing
strictures
employed
by
individual
societies
in
order
to
keep
the
power
hierarchies
intact.
Inclusivity
and
empowerment
become
by-products
of
that
intrinsic
understanding.

Ranjith’s
chaotic
churn
of
ideas
and
concepts
of
love
encompassing
live
action,
animation
and
documentary
style
footage
are
well
aided
by
Kishor
Kumar’s
colourful
camerawork,
Selva
RK’s
non-linear
editing,
and
serenaded
by
Tenma’s
unorthodox
musical
sounds
that
help
string
together
the
patchwork
story
situated
in
multiple
locations,
into
a
meaningful
and
powerful
whole!

Performances

All
the
actors
put
in
smartly
enmeshed
performances
that
heighten
the
experience.
The
viewer
gets
to
experience
the
story
through
the
many
stages
of
growth
–
from
an
idea
right
up
to
the
final
performance.

It’s
another
matter
that
unhinged
ideology-backed
hatred
sets
fire
to
those
liberal
ideas
and
within
those
flames,
we
become
witness
to
new
hope
–
albeit
somewhat
bloodied
and
ravaged.

Verdict

Pa
Ranjith’s
effort
has
the
power
to
ignite
both
hearts
and
minds.
The
near
three-hour
runtime
and
the
over-indulgence
in
songs
may
overwhelm
the
narrative
at
times
but
the
overall
experience
is
still
elevating
and
thought-provoking.