2021, Tamil, Netflix 7.6/10 IMDB, Directed By Nishanth Kalidindi
A ‘Pulp Fiction’ inspired attempt- ‘To begin the story almost at the end of the narration’, validates the compelling pursuit of something unattainable in the preceding hour and a half of the film. The skilfully carried out ‘morbid humor’ of taboos, initially awakens discomfort, gladdens the viewers with the narration and finally lands on a captivating thought.
The director exhaustively traverses with no haste on the western genre, whose premise is built on the familiar ‘reciprocal justice’- similar degree of injury by the injured to the injurer. But what makes one intrigued is, how the images and tone translates onscreen. Also, the maker divulges his intention, in the last 28 minutes to be precise, which potentially swaps the motive of the ‘story-telling’, up until then.
The vulgarity of certain words and its profanity, diminishes when the word becomes a ‘slang’ and is used to refer any generally used nouns, such as surprise, annoyance and anger. When we theorize the word, it may just be a ‘transformed’ sophisticated-style of communication. But we tend to forget that the equivalent word in any other language, might still retain its vulgarity. It reminded me of a contestant on a recent reality show, who whinged that the Tamil version of the originally English swear word, humiliated her more.
The dialogues of the film, gambles on a similar widely used ‘swear-turned-cosmopolitan’ English ‘S’ word which is often deliberately replaced as ‘shoot’ and ‘shucks’ to reduce its objectionable nature. The repetitive phonetics of the Tamil version, in endless combinations, referring the ‘excreting process’, feels obnoxious to begin with. Surprisingly, after a while, the human brain, either is getting palsy-walsy with the Tamil word game or the plot is intriguingly established through uncanny characterization, that the Tamil jargons aren’t obscene.
The narration in the satirical voice sets the mood right. Two brothers force their younger brother to accompany them to avenge their father’s murder. The elder brother Periya Pandi played by Vasanth Selvam, fondly reminds actor Shoubin Shahir, both in his looks and his deep gaze. His driving purpose to avenge his father’s death, has more intensity to it and he is convincing. The second brother Ila Pandi’s character played by Dinesh Manias, is chucklesome and clumsy, but his resourcefulness persuades the viewers of his allegiance.
The maker diligently treats the ‘subplots’ as individual sections and later compiles them impeccably. Both the brother character’s arc abruptly ends, which is the ‘beginning’ for the despondent third brother’s character Chikku Pandi, played by ‘Super Deluxe’ actor Vijay Ram. The key characters such as the lorry driver, his son, the rubber estate owner and his psychopath son are also interestingly introduced through these evocative vignettes.
The deliberate action of constant trailing, near captures and repeated escapes, keeps the audiences indulged. The abrupt ‘stops and starts’ pattern in the screenplay, got to be attributed to the maker’s inclination. He subjects the viewers with emotions, similar to that of the onscreen character’s experiences, however eerie it might be.
As the behavior, attitude and personality of most of the characters are narration-driven visualizations, it at times unscrupulously dodges the minds of the viewers. But ironically, that feature becomes the highly developed moment of truth, at its best, as and when the characters reveal themselves.
After Chikku Pandi’s ‘shot-span revelations’, all his attempts to break-free from the evil fails. The character ‘arc’ come a near ‘full-circle’ hero’s journey, when he surmounts the obstacle and resists, so he can seize the world that was denied to him.
The director chooses to end the film, with a scene that represents a transliteration of the title- a boy ordering ‘Biriyani at last’. This elementary scene is sequenced, just after the boy longingly gazes at a school gate. The countless torments of the vulnerable weakling, keeps reflecting in your eye, along with his futile attempts to restrain his brothers.
The choice of actor Vijay Sethupathi for the voice-over, apart from viability reasons, has a purpose to it, as it amplifies the key satirical tone of the film, by many folds.