2021, Tamil, Amazon Prime, 9.7/10 IMDB, Directed T.J. Gnanavel
Yet another story in the lines of Mari Selvaraj’s Karnan, that rips the masks off the brutal bureaucratic faces with an authentic real event to back it up. Any attempt to bring to light, the plight of the marginalized is noble. The sequencing of the nearly two decade old incident, paradoxically reminds the 2020 custodial death at Thoothukudi district of the state. It only proves one needs no reason to welcome with open arms, such movies that voice the insignificant souls, keeping aside its technical movie-making impediments.
Mankind had witnessed numerous external forces that had decided on what constitutes ‘History’ and what doesn’t, as it was either conveniently hidden with ulterior motives or was indisputably manipulated. The ‘non-social media era’ of the 90’s, is no exception, as it witnessed many human rights violations, discriminations and social injustice. At the outset what is saddening is that these kind of incidents that happened 26 long years back, is still surfacing with more brutality just 16 short months back in the state, right in the middle of the ever powerful social media era. This thought was eating my mind the whole time I watched the film.
The director chooses to narrate the story, through the eyes of the tribal villagers through a glimpse of their livelihood in the initial sequences. Later the film moves towards establishing the character of an activist- turned Lawyer, Chandru, played by actor Surya. He eventually becomes the saviour of the falsely accused tribal people, in cases that has no lead to the real offenders.
The story could have easily been a heroic venture for the actor which he could have savored upon, to reinstate his stardom, but both the makers and the actor, realize their responsibilities to the community in not making it a project to ‘up’ their personal accomplishments. The plot is of course commercialized, but strikes the right balance and doesn’t go overboard by not presenting it as a jingoistic propaganda.
The actors do justice to their roles, especially Lizomol Jose and K. Manikandan, who play the lead. Like any other movie, Jai Bhim also threads on the usual ‘set up’ of a happy couple in love, just to secure a ‘pay off’ later, but the innocence that the characters send forth, pays off reasonably well.
The shots where the custodial brutality is unleashed, you cannot be without thinking of Vetrimaran’s film ‘Visaranai’. But when the sequences flash more that once in different parts of the movie during each one’s perspective, it does become repetitive. However, the story moves forward on its plane and one is kept fairly engaged.
From the highly dramatized court scenes of the 90’s to the family courts in 2016 ‘Andavan Kattalai’, it sure is a giant leap to Tamil Cinema.
Here we are heavily prepped with a disclaimer that the court proceedings are visualized in native language in contrary to the real life scenario, as the arguments are in English at the High court. Expectations mount for a realistic argument, but the smirky counsel Surya’s and the clowny prosecutor Guru Somasundaram’s were a let down.
The premise being the one that is based on true events, the realistic quotient in few instances seems to have fallen prey to the commercial phenomena. Nevertheless, given the seriousness of the story in hand and the truth that unravels one after the other in the near-perfect screenplay, compensates for all the petty mishaps. Frequent revisits to the violent scenes in the intention of influencing the audience to empathize with the characters, were not required, as the shot compositions kept the audience invested in the film already.
It is unquestionably a welcome change to see actor Surya commit to a serious script such as this, ‘sans’ romance. Kudos to the makers for choosing to tell the tale, that needs to be told, to bring forth some changes in the system as a whole.
Must watch.