From a director well-known for
his characterization comprising of the dark side of a good human being, Paradesi
sets out to be a little different towards the end (Even though this is not the
first time director Bala had tried to move away from his initial style viz. in
Avan Ivan the characters were more comically portrayed at most parts of it).
Even though the story is adapted
from a novel, Paradesi begins the Bala style though. An unseen set of village
characters that seem to be very fond of their love for humor despite the fact
that they all are in extreme poverty, form the drama that sets forth the first
half of the film. Rasa (played by Adharva),
an innocent village lad who beats the drum to carry messages and earn a handful
of leftover food from anyone who might be willing to give them away, is at the receiving end of constant
complaints from a concerned grandmother. She keeps trying to insult him and push
him in all ways to make him develop an ego and earn food through a respectable
job. The village’s introduction to us begins with a marriage ceremony and the
whole village is rejoicing. A funny old man dies and his own wife wants the
news to stay away from popular talk to avoid any disturbance to the marriage and
the grand feast to follow. The inference here one has to make is about how
despite the fact that the villagers are in despair, they are fun loving people
who make use of whatever they have to make merry. Angamma (played by Vedhika) is
a naughty village girl whose primary hobby is to make fun of Rasa. Even though
she teases him a lot, she only ends up falling in love with his innocence. Rasa
is pushed to a level of intolerance during the feast and sets out to seek any
job that comes along and gets one too, but, only to get cheated. That’s when he
meets a tea estate keeper who is on the search for laborers for his estate. Rasa
takes him to his village and the keeper convinces many men including Rasa to
join his estate. The desperate men who are misguided by the keeper’s words and
attracted by money set forth to the mountains that grew tea.
The next half of the movie is one
that of the tortures faced by bonded labors of the British Raj’s tea estates.
From severe punishments to anyone who tries to escape to sexual harassments
faced by the female laborers at the hands of the White officer in-charge of the
estate, the helplessness of the laborers is well-portrayed.
Dhansika plays the role of mother who is trapped in the estate as laborer with her daughter. Her role is one that commands respect, much like that of Sangeetha’s in Pithamagan, a bold young woman facing the world alone. She is the only support Rasa earns. The troubles seem to be never-ending when most of them are made to stay citing penalties from various expenses despite their bond expiring. Their bonds gets extended till they are clearly physically unfit to be profitable. Gripping scenes in the second half melt your heart away.
At a place or two I felt things
didn’t work well. One was the unnecessary song involving the savior doctor and
his white wife, who are brought by the White men to instill faith in the
disease-stricken laborer community (later shown that it is all a false drama
played by the Whites). This musical style to portray how faith in god was used
to get the laborers back on feet could have been easily avoided. A simple screenplay
would have been neat. The other thing that was odd was the quality of English
spoken by the White men; even their Tamil seemed better!
The movie ends when Angamma comes
to the estate in search for Rasa, with his son (they never married though), and
Rasa cries out in vain mentioning how they are trapped in hell forever. This
ending is how particularly it is not Bala stuff. Even after Dhansika’s death,
Rasa doesn’t soar with anger. He is weak and helpless throughout and not a
single sign of rage in seen from him at any point.
Acting of everyone in the cast is as
usual one of benchmark standards, something Bala is known to get out of his
cast. Adharava, Vedhika and Dhansika stand out with their expressions and screen command. The dialogues are well written. Dirty jokes fill the conversations throughout
the first half. One can feel great quality from the richness in the natural
sets, the detail in defining a character’s mannerisms, the effort to get humor
of a level that matches the intellect of the characters involved, and what
everything that Bala is always known
for. His constant effort to bring elements of uniqueness and strong character
definitions to Tamil cinema is an ever continuing one.
