Paava
Kadhaigal’ review: There will be blood
When you
think of injustice or paava kadhaigal, whether in the form of suspicion of
sexuality, caste-based violence, or honor killings, you can't help but wonder
how much women, who are invariably on the receiving end, endure. The
anthology's animated title sequence, which uses the color red as a symbol to
show the various stages of a woman's life, further underscores the fact that
women are the worst of the oppressed, regardless of caste or creed. to which
they belong.
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Sudha
Kongara's Thangam is Paava Kadhaigal's most interesting film. It's interesting
what it could have become. In Xavier Dolan's Matthias & Maxime, two
childhood friends, who are apparently straight, share a kiss that results in an
awkward intimacy between the two. The film was a tender portrait in what it
explored: male friendship and sexual orientation, among others.
Sudha's
portion could have been that movie. The only thing is that it is not. However,
it is still an interesting movie. Thangam shares a similar plot involving two
childhood friends, one of whom is a transgender person (Kalidas Jayaram offers
a poignant performance as Sathaar / Thangam, without the stereotypes that come
with playing a trans character) and is drawn to by her friend Saravanan
(Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, who has always been good at what she does), who, in turn,
is attracted to Sathaar's sister, Sahira (Bhavani Sre).
There has
never been a movie, at least in Tamil, that fought for the natural, physical
and sexual feelings of a trans person. And we've never seen the anguish of a
trans character in an unrequited love story, it's almost as if the subgenre is
reserved only for men. The film is set around the same time that T Rajender
became the poster boy for unrequited love with his Oru Thalai Raagam, a film
that featured an unpleasant portrait of transgender people in the song
"Kokkarakozhi Koovura Velai". Sathaar is also subject to insults and
homophobic jokes; they refer to it as "Saravanan purushan". Thangam
duality really works. You think Saravanan is the "thangam" of Sathaar
until you find out who the real thangam is.
But the
angle of unrequited love seems to be the only merit of the short.
What we see
in Thangam, which is about interfaith marriage, is the honor of a family that
puts gender identity before everything else. In one of the cruel scenes,
Sathaar's mother (Vinodhini Vaidhyanathan) begs that she (Sathaar) would rather
die than shame them. It is horrible to think of the many real life Sathaars who
are "killed" without their families actually killing them.
PAVANN SINGH
Cast:
Kalidas Jayaram, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, Bhavani Sree, Anjali, Kalki Koechlin,
Gautham Menon, Simran, Prakash Raj and Sai Pallavi
Directors:
Sudha Kongara, Vignesh Shivan, Gautham Menon and Vetri Maaran
Duration: 35
minutes each
Vignesh
Shivan is angry. He is angry with a society that considers accepting
inter-caste marriages. He's angry at society for which the LGBTQI + community
is still a strange concept. He thinks he can vent his anger through his
characters in Love Panna Uttranum and through his liberal use of expletives.
But what Vignesh thinks he understands is this: bad words that affect actually
translate into emotions. His episode is about caste-based murders and has a a fascinating subplot that involves something like a secret society, spearheaded
by a character with vertical challenges (I didn't get the actor's name, but
let's just say it's the best thing I could have done. past. this movie). Anjali
plays the twin daughter (Aadhilakshmi and Jothilakshmi) of a village chief
(played by Padam Kumar, who is brilliant), a catalyst who gives fake political
speeches, positioning himself as anti-caste. For every caste marriage she
approves of, she has the secret society working for her in hiding, trying to
"level" her position.
Love Panna
Uttranum is a film that brings lightness to Paava Kadhaigal and that is the
biggest problem. He felt that you were taking yourself seriously, partly
because of your tonality, which, if anything, plays out like some kind of black
comedy, and your deafening politics. One of the sisters is gay, or at least we
hope she is, and the other wants her father's approval to marry someone other
than her caste.
Aadhilakshmi
is in love with Penelope (Kalki Koechlin), a foreigner. Of course, you need a
foreigner to show a lesbian couple. How else would you convince
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