from now on Victim – who is next? Trailer. (manners: sonyliv,
Throw: Guru Somasundaram, Amala Paul, Prasanna, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Thambi Ramaiah
Director: Get. Ranjith, Venkata Prabhu, M. Rajesh, Chimbudevan
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Compilation of Tamil short films streaming on SonyLIV, Victim – who’s next?, gives wildly different strokes. We have four directors here, four storytelling methods, and four different end results. The range of genres in the show is certainly noteworthy. However, the cumulative effect is significantly reduced due to the lack of qualitative stability in the four films.
DhammanGet. directed by Ranjitho
dhammm (Compassion), p. Ranjith, is a hammer blow, a subtle parable that exposes the irreconcilable reality of violence against Dalits in rural Tamil Nadu (and, needless to say, across India).
The marginal farmer Guna (played by Guru Somasundaram) quietly engages in the task of preparing his little land for the next crop, while his younger daughter Kema (the former housewife) plays with the carelessness of the surroundings. Along comes Shekhar (Kalaiyarasan), an upper caste farmer who owns a large tract of land around Guna’s plot.
A spontaneous confrontation between the cocky white-dressed man and the little girl over the right to pass along a narrow path that separates the land of Guna from the next turns into a brawl that has unintended but dire consequences.
Director of Photography Thamis A. Azagan’s fluid camera captures the chaos on the ground and, when untouched by terra firma, climbs freely to reveal the tiny compressed blocks into which the land below is divided. While dealing with the raw nuances of the situation, Ranjith creates a story about the crisis that caste-derived ego poses to humanity at large.
Helped by the economy of means made possible by the 30-minute format and the freedom provided by digital distribution, the writer-director is able to abandon his usual people-oriented approach to caste oppression dramas and a brief smattering of narrative action. , the dots hug the line. To deliver a powerful, disturbing film that is sure to stand the test of time by its own steam.
The other three films that make up the quartet are pale in comparison, although they each have something to offer the audience.
ConfessionDirected by Venkat Prabhu
Actor-director Venkat Prabhu, whose brainchild of this anthology, presents a psychological thriller, ConfessionAmala Paul starred as a media supporter who finds herself in the line of a sniper’s fire.
The twisted plot is not entirely convincing, Anjana lives in a luxurious condo in Adyar, Chennai. The smooth-talking gunman (prasna), much less fancy, stationed in a building opposite Anjana, is from a strictly middle class address. But the socioeconomic divide isn’t the reason the “Remington sniper” is gunning for Anjana.
Sniper gives ‘cool girl’ an ultimatum – confess your ‘misdeeds’ and I’ll spare you. It’s not immediately clear why he’s at the mercy of a random man—who, on his part, tells his carefree wife that he’s requested his bosses to release him from the night shift. Slowly, it emerges that she is a target because of who she is – a girl with her own mind.
Both Amala Paul and Prasanna give concrete details about themselves, but the idea of putting an independent, ambitious girl under a suspicious microscope as she smacks of unacceptable gender bias.
mirageDirected by M. Rajesh
Appearance of another girl in distress, this one in M. Rajesh mirage, asks the question: isn’t it time to trash the stereotype for good? Pavitra (Priya Bhavani Shankar), an IT professional from Bangalore, comes to Chennai for a client presentation and checks in for the night at a guesthouse on the outskirts of the city.
There you go, another cliché—a desolate house with horrifying secrets—is thrown into the mix. To make matters worse for Pavitra, she has to reconcile with a deranged caretaker, who dutifully informs her that she is the first guest at the Heritage Villa in six months.
at 24 minutes, mirage The shortest of the four films, but it quickly falls into a loop that, despite the fear of a jump here and the twist of shock there, forces the plot into a corner where there is only a roll of dice to escape. Possible through desperate throws. The film breaks away from genre to deliver an important message.
mirage It works neither as a supernatural thriller about a deadly force pervading the darkness of the night nor as a commentary on the demons that often gnaw on human minds before it’s too late. If so, they need to be addressed.
Kottai Pakku Vathalum Mottai Madi Seetharumdirected by chimbudevan
In Kottai Pakku Vathalum Mottai Madi Seetharum (Supari Aur Chhat Seer), a comedy conceived and executed by Chimbudevan, follows a man, a troubled magazine in his 40s, who is in a great spot of trouble. “After an auspicious day when the entire city faced lockdown in 2020,” Sikander (Thambi Ramaiah), Kanda to his acquaintance, is on the verge of layoffs.
Kanda’s only way to save his job is to locate and interview a famous sage (Nasir), who is over 400 years old and who returns to the world of mortals once in half a century. His next trip is due in the middle of the pandemic. The journalist stumbles upon the seer. The latter agrees to place his questions on two conditions, one of which may endanger the life of the person.
The ensuing conversation between the two is neither spiritual nor philosophical. It takes the form of freewheeling banter on the state of the world at large and Tamil Nadu in particular. Sage touches on matters taken out of the news headlines of the day and verbalizes domestic truths, among which is the realization that a pandemic is nature’s way of striking back at mankind’s harsh methods. Kanda has more worldly things on his mind. He asks Rishi to compare the divas of Tamil cinema fifty years ago – Saroja Devi and Savitri – with the queen bees Samantha and Nayanthara of today. He doesn’t get the expected response.
Four stories about four characters facing questions of life and death form the core of Victim. The vehicles they use vary from staggeringly good dhammmwhich would receive a five-star rating if one could grade the films individually to be less affecting mirageWith Venkat Prabhu and Chimbudevan films occupying the middle ground.
watch dhammmIf not others, it provides for the fast and stimulating sampling that Pa. What can Ranjeet achieve if he is given the option of not playing by the rules of the commercial film industry and adopting an artistically individualistic idiom.