R ARIVANANTHAM
National Poet Subramania Bharathiar has said during the freedom struggle that “Sirumai Kandu Ponguvaai (rise against oppression)” to boost the morale of freedom fighters. In a similar way, National Award winning International Star from Tamil Nadu Dhanush portrays well the role of Karnan by taking on the oppressors.
Pariyerum Perumal Director Mari Selvaraj’s ‘Karnan’, filmed in a tiny dry village Podiyankulam has all the elements that a mass hero Dhanush demands from filmmakers to exhilarate his fans, hit the screens across the globe on Friday.
The film is the most anticipated classic film of 2021 which exhibits local flavours with the slang of typical Tirunelveli, a southern district in Tamil Nadu.
Karnan is a story of a normal fearless young man with incredible leadership quality and grit to save his people and fight for their rights.
In Karnan, Mari Selvaraj has found a perfect balance between mainstream commercial elements and the metaphorical storytelling, the home ground of filmmakers.
Podiyankulam (Inspired by the infamous Kodiyankulam communal riot) is a dry village located in the 90s Tuticorin district.
The film starts with a girl lying on the road struggling with a sudden epilepsy attack. None of the vehicles stop to help her and she dies. Eventually, Mari replaces the girl’s head with an idol (‘Uruvam’ is the word used for it in down south of Tamil Nadu).
The whole story revolving around the youngsters in the village, who are unable to achieve big, especially higher education, as even the basic transportation facility is denied by the Government.
The people in Podiyankulam belong to the oppressed community and hence, they have enmity with the neighbouring village where the majority of people belong to the privileged community.
Karnan (Dhanush), an angry young man from Podiyankulam always stands for the cause of his people.
Karnan is like the warrior from Mahabharata, a strong-willed youngster, who fights for his people and comes out victorious in whatever he does. His Godfather in the village is Yaman (Lal). While Karnan stands up whenever the neighboring villagers try to oppress his people, Yaman controls him as the dream of the former’s family is to get him a Government job, preferably in CRPF after passing through many hurdles like inadequate transport to reach the interview spot.
However, the oppression pushes Karnan and his friends to revolt. As a result, they break a private bus and loudly tell the Government officials that their needs should be heard out. But the police officials and Government let them down and brutally torture the senior members in the village. Will Karnan hit back at the heartless police force headed by Kannabiran (Natty- what an ironical name!)?
Mari Selvaraj has made sure that Kannan, the God of Mahabharata is a villain here and Karnan, the unsung hero gets enough glorification on screen. There are many metaphors, including the little girl with an idol-like mask, a donkey whose legs are tied, the vulture that eats up the weak pullet, names of the village seniors, and Karnan’s sword that cuts the fish at one stroke.
All these metaphors either act as an ode to Mahabharata (although the film criticizes it) or rightly amplify the screenplay.
Mari Selvaraj has conveyed the pain and sufferings of the oppressed without hurting anyone and he must be appreciated for using the visual representation and not the heroic dialogues to represent their struggle. Even, the pre-climax dialogue of Dhanush sounds relevant and not forced. He is the filmmaker to watch out for in Tamil cinema.
Karnan clearly belongs to Dhanush and it is a cakewalk for him. He is fantastic in the action scenes and the emotional moments to express the anguish of the oppressed.
Lal has finally got an interesting role in Tamil cinema and he has truly excelled., Yogi Babu plays a sentimental role, different from his comedy, Malayalam actress Rajisha Vijayan, Lakshmipriya (the scene when she hits Dhanush as his elder sister is powerful), Gouri Kishan, Natty, GM Kumar, and the small boy who takes care of the horse are apt choices for their roles.
Santhosh Narayanan’s music is inspiring and gels well with the mood of the film and Theni Eshwar’s camera work is splendid.
The art director Ramalingam also deserves applause for recreating an entire 90s style village.
Karnan is a classic revenge saga, which reveals the pain, suffering, and rise of the oppressed produced by Kalaipuli S Thanu. This is his 35-th film.
Talking to navjeevanexpress.com on the sidelines of a premier show for media personnel at Satyam Cinemas, Thanu expressed hope that the film will be a great hit across the globe in spite of fresh restrictions imposed due to the surge in Corona cases.
