Ka. Pae. Ranasingam

2020, Tamil, Zee5 pay per movie, IMDB 7.9/10, Directed by Virumandi

A protracted documentation of the ordeal of the villagers, whose menfolk are forced to go aboard on menial works, would have otherwise glisten, had it been subjected to precise editing and concise writing.

From the ancient story of Sathyavan Savithri to that of Manirathnam’s Roja, its a familiar story, when a woman fights to get back her husband, from the dead in the antient version and from the terrorist in the 1992 film’s analogy, except in both cases, the husband returns back alive.

Ka( Kanavan). Pae (Paeyar). Ranasingam, (translating Husband Name is Ranasingam) is unique, as the wife is fighting at length to bring back her dead husband’s body to the native village. The director seems determined not to sprinkle any filmy fairy dust, to bring the husband back alive even in the last scene and in fact it ends a contrary- death being affirmed in a zooming out shot off the Persian Gulf.

The tediously lengthy formalities to claim the dead body, the arrangements required for it to be flown back and the cost involving the process, sends a head spin for the viewers, let alone for the helpless villagers. The subtlety in juxtaposition of actress Sridevi’s body flown back to the country with in couple of days of her death, in contrast to the uncertainty of a body of the commoner, reflects the perception of the film maker, without any melodramatic dialogues.

Vijay Sethupathi’s performance is less credible than expected, for one, it is a repetition of his romance sequence in few of his previous outing including a very similar one in ‘Karuppan’ and the other significant reason being, his bulkiness. Its high time the hero stops giving excuses and puts his health on priority, as it would be a shame to see it impede his arc, for he is one of the few actors with sanity and talent, in the industry.

Aishwarya Rajesh is the strength of the movie. The shades and modulations in her performance is destined to put her in a higher pedestal sooner that she expects. The emotions of the grief stridden wife on the death of her husband, is a cake walk for her. But challenging is the repetition of the sequence every time the village mourns hearing a news on the arrival of her husband body. One could differentiate the variations of her grim face, the dried eyes, the obsessed determination in seeing her husband’s body, not wondering if its worth seeing a loved in that state. She is an original. The final shot where she cusses the officials, sitting in front of her husband’s photo, I believe she is making a headway to be identified as the Smita Patil of the south.

But somehow, the duos performance as a couple, fails to caress your heart like the 2016 Dharmadurai film did.

The debut director Virmuadi seems inadvertently ambitious not to see any of his footage being edited out, resulting in a 2 hour 57min film, which hinders and even misplaces the very essence of the making of the film.

A savior who worries for the betterment of his land and the wellbeing of his fellow villagers, takes up a menial job abroad in order to uplift his own family. The land is barren without water and the fight to set it right results in vain. There isn’t anything immoral in putting his family first.

But the conflict is, when everyone whom the wife approaches for help, is also putting self before others and not taking that extra mile to help, is portrayed selfish and unhelpful. The collector, the agent and other officials are entangled in the inefficient government framework and hence no one can be blamed except the system. Speaking of the collector, if only anchor turned actor, Rangaraj Pandey wouldn’t try to put his actor’s mask the minute the camera starts rolling and be his original self, he could make it to where his aspiration aims.

The anger of the film maker is all over the place. If the focus was on fewer vital issues, he could have achieved an even stronger impact. Too many subplots to be blamed I guess. The humble 2000 movie ‘Vetri Kodi Kattu’ of cheran, had addressed the issue reasonably well and the film ‘Andavan Kattalai’, educated the viewers not to complicate the simple formalities of the passport office, beautifully encompassing a Sri Lankan refugee angle as well.

This film though is a good watch.