Friday, 28 September 2018

Pariyerum Perumal: Out of the BLUE, comes hope

Tamil cinema has been seeing movies that speak about the soil over the cacophony of silence. Communalism is not a new subject amidst this cacophony of the industry which, on alternate Fridays, has been showcasing stories of contaminating elements that are rooted in society.

But, Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal, is not in the essence of those polished or metaphorical screenplays. It touches the ground bottom cause of communalism through a straight drive and opens up on the raw and real existence of casteism and untouchability.

The protagonist ‘Pariyerum Perumal BA, BL mela oru kodu’ (Kathir), as he introduces himself, has to face a lot of stumbling blocks before he can even complete his law degree. In earlier movies that spoke about the same constraints in the community, what we saw was a story in the perception of a protagonist who wants to put an end or who actually puts an end to all social issues suffered by weaker sections. Unlike them, Pariyerum Perumal is in the first person angle of Pariyan, who faces communal troubles.

One more likeable aspect of the screenplay is that it never loses the spirit of nativity or realism even when the objective is to deliver the idea of ‘humanism’.

The way classroom culture and the mechanism of an educational institution are replicated on the screen brings fidelity to the narration of Pariyerum Perumal.

When the protagonist suffers, there are two persons standing by him throughout – his friend Anand (Yogi Babu) and his devathai Jothi Mahalakshmi (Anandhi). Surprisingly, both of them have been shown as the ones from the oppressing class, who have a strong emotional bonding with the oppressed Pariyan.

But, director Mari has given a slight difference to their characterisation. Anand can understand the pain of his friend, when he says ‘Nee evalo kathunalum ivanga yaarukum puriyaathu da’ and 'Jaathi paathu thaan pazhagurena?'. While on the other front, Jothi does not even know the aristocracy she belongs to or the intensity of the hurdles Pariyan has gone through to join a law college. And all three – Kathir, Anandhi and Yogi Babu – slip into the skin of their characters and have ‘killed’ with their performances. Except for the recitation of the Nellai dialect, Yogi Babu is again performing 'the prestige' act of his magical one-liners that simply tickle us.

For Kathir and Anandhi, this one should be one much-needed break in their career. When the writer wants to draw this thin line between two different perceptions of a relationship, the two young actors emote exactly what he wanted them to do. In the climax, there is a dialogue for Pariyan about the kind of relationship he has with Jothi getting collapsed due to communal aggression, and here both the actor and the director lift the objective of the film coherently.

The place where Pariyerum Perumal stands out from its predecessors is the complexity of its conflicts. When Pariyan is pushed into a situation at first, he tries to find a way out.
Before he could extricate himself, he gets into another. As the screenplay proceeds, we see him facing more and more difficulties and, finally, he reaches his tolerance limit.

It is at this very point, Mari Selvaraj has established an intensive deep connect metaphorised with Pariyan’s dog ‘Karuppi’. Though we see it as his pet for the first few moments, when Pariyan is at the peak of all his troubles, Karuppi (black) becomes blue, and literally energises him. Revolution breaks out and Pariyan finds his time to strike back. We have Santhosh Narayanan to raise the mood through musicality here.

Pariyerum Perumal is that one movie which has a lot to say but on a very metered scale. It neither preaches nor underplays, but shows reality. We could see the conviction of Mari Selvaraj in the words he speaks through his characters.

Especially in the climax, which is a definite chokeslam to the oppressing class. At the same time, we could see a conversation where he wants a particular section of society to not participate and is rigorously sent out of the room – a hint where he wants to differentiate native people from outsiders. Here is where he conveys the actual reason that has caused all the oppression in society.

In parallel, we also have a lot of real-time events converted to film language without their original substance getting lost into a melodrama. When the film needs to give a strong verdict to communal murders and honour-murders (why should even say it killing?) that are seen as on newspaper banners, we also get to see a similar evening daily's poster hung, carrying the news of the death of a serial killer, who calls it a ritual.

Same way is how Mari deals with his take on understanding English. For the whole classroom, it could be an act of embarrassing Pariyan when he wants his 'teacher' to teach in English, but they don't even understand that he was actually making the demand for everyone else who co-exist with him. I should say we can take this scene as a dictionary of film-language.

The last frame of Pariyerum Perumal over which the end credits roll is visual poetry and the aspiration of the filmmaker who wants to bring equality. Apparently, it is set inside an educational institution where humanity has a better chance to overtake untouchability and here Pariyan succeeds.

- Santhosh Mathevan,
Chennai, September 28, 2018.

A part or complete version of this review by Santhosh Mathevan has appeared in This viewer's note is completely based on the perceptions of Santhosh Mathevan alone. This does not reflect the views of two or more people or a community. Queries and criticism shall be addressed to the writer only.