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Just finished watching #PaavaKadhaigal. I'm absolutely speechless at how incredible the entire thing was. Totally gutwrenching with some of the most incredible heartwrenching performances I've seen in a while.
The first skit #Thangam, all the credit has to go to Kalidas Jayaram and Sudha Kongara man. Kalidas does an amazing job as Sathaar, Indian media often jokes about transgender characters but you just root for Kalidas the entire way, the entire world is against Sathaar but for the
sake of his sister and his best friend he sacrifices everything. I say that 2020 has been a difficult year but with PPK on Amazon Prime and this film I think Kalidas is going to be an actor who is here to stay, whether it be Malayalam or Tamil.
The second skit #LovePannaUttranum was definitely not what I was expecting going in. Vignesh Shivan is a very interesting filmmaker(Loved Naanum Rowdy Dhaan and Tharnaa Sendhaa Koottam was one of Suriya's better recent outings) but I found it very interesting how he was able to
make this into a black comedy. Never would I thought I'd be laughing over wordpuns and Tamil cursewords about a story of an influential man killing his daughter over wanting to marrying his driver. The wtf factor made this a very interesting watch compared to the other few skits
, especially with the rap in the end and the epilogue. Once again great performances from the actor who plays the father, Anjali(Def need to see more Telugu actresses in cinema space) but the guy who steals the show is the midget. He's a true "venomous bastard."
The third short #Vaanmagal is arguably my favorite out of the four. I am a huge GVM fan, and I always feel like he knows what he has to do. Him and Simran are just perfect as a middle class couple in Chennai with a college age son and two young daughters(may I note that Aditya Bh
askar, the actor who plays their son, does an amazingly emotional but restraint performance as the son. You just can see the fear, emotion and pure anger that is racing through him, and he plays it with such maturity. I was a fan of him in '96 playing a younger version of Vijay
Sethupathi, but he really nailed it here and I'm hoping to see more of him in the future). I think this episode also highlights the complexity and vulnerability of parents as well, as kids we often see our parents as ones who "know it all" and are our heroes, but the vulnerabilit
y that GVM and Simran show after they realize their daughter has been raped is absolutely heartbreaking. I feel this short also hits so hard emotionally the viewer as they are just a normal city family going about their life, very many of us can relate to their situation before
the "incident" in the film, and the fallout of the incident and how GVM is able to show the struggles everyone in the family has makes us remind us that there's so much horrible stuff in the world that we're simply not able to deal with. The ending I also find so intense. On one
side you have the son taking redemption against the rapist and even if it is gruesome, you feel like there is some closure. But on the other side you have a girl's dreams absolutely crushed because her mother couldn't bear the honor and status in society, and a father who should
have resisted more, effectively ruining their family because of "log kya kahenge". An absolutely incredible, breathtaking short that had me in chills in the end.
The fourth skit #OorIravu by Vetrimaaran has to be the most uncomfortable and tense skit out of an already intense four episodes. While I do agree that spoiling this one in the last episode was not a good idea, it also makes it even more heartbreaking knowing about Sai Pallavi's
fate. The beginning of the skit when Prakash Raj comes to see her seems harmless, but as the skit progresses, it becomes more and more tense. I really think this short is powered by the actors Sai Pallavi and Prakash Raj. Sai Pallavi's character is very earnest and strong-minded,
while Prakash Raj is a ticking time bomb, and when he explodes it makes you jump out of your seat somewhat. For how much cinema I watch, I actually haven't seen any of Vetrimaaran's works believe it or not, but the rawness and intensity he is able to bring to this story makes me
realize how he is such a great director - its like he really understands how rural Tamil Nadu and its people/culture work. The last 10 minutes of this skit is just so difficult to watch, but it's incredible.
