There really ought to be some kind of a qualifier for filmmakers. An exhaustive assessment that deems someone competent (enough) to make movies. A screen test for directors that would determine where they belong. Are they environmentally conscious? No flying tomatoes, oranges, or other market paraphernalia just to prove the might of the hero? No? Good.
Is there some measure of social consciousness? In this A Sarkunam directorial, Thamarai (Anandhi) is forced to discontinue her education. Why? Because she receives seemingly lewd texts from a classmate. But that’s quickly explained. Thamarai tells her sister that it’s a blessed relief. She never liked school much – a hardbound English Dictionary, with pages ripped out, becomes a convenient stash for her phone, a gift from her boyfriend. Why would a girl need an education, when she can have a boyfriend instead?
That’s the first 30 minutes of Chandi Veeran. In the next 30 minutes, Paari (Atharvaa), who is ‘in love’ with Thamarai, stalks her and harasses her. Soon after, she falls in love with him.
Thamarai is all of 16 years old. And Paari has no means of gainful employment.
The thing about watching something as …socially and culturally regressive as that is, I would like to be warned. Warned of the content, warned about the kind of movies I can expect from this filmmaker. I want them graded A, B and C, for all the world to see.
Just like how it’s done with audiences.
*****
Recommended
Sarkunam would have us think Chandi Veeran is a tale of love. It isn’t. He would have us think it’s a family drama, with Paari’s late father (an Atharvaa staple) invoked a little too often. He would have us believe in this rural tale of villagers sparring over a lake – the drawn veecharuvas, the corrupt village elders, and the heroine’s candy-coloured bike, when she’s dressed to drive in a davani. It just doesn’t hold. What’s the catch? The romance that seems so wrong right from the beginning? The feudal villagers who constantly scheme to kill each other? Or Atharvaa, who tries to play the messiah?
But boy, has he grown. Atharvaa doesn’t brood as often in Chandi Veeran. He laughs quite a bit (sometimes in the wrong places, too), and even spruces things up with a joke or two.
You just wish he’d chosen better.
*****
The Chandi Veeran Review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have an advertising relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.