Why we need more Paava Kadhaigal
Paava Kadhaigal offers a peek at the horrors that humans are capable of inflicting on others in the name of honour. And experiences like this would surely make us more empathetic to the sufferings of others. December 20, 2020 5:05:11 pm
Paava Kadhaigal is streaming on Netflix.
We have to thank Vetri Maaran for steering his producers and colleagues towards making an anthology movie chronicling the sins that people commit in the name of honour. If not for him, we may have ended up with four romantic tales, instead of four gut-wrenching stories that are timely and relevant.
Minor spoilers ahead
What is sin? Who is the sinner? these are two fundamental questions that Paava Kadhaigal, Netflix’s Tamil edition of
Lust Stories, endeavours to answer. The title, which translates to stories of sin would have us believe that this is about deviants and the society they are in. In actuality though, the anthology is more about the violence of the norm, and who gains from perpetuating it.
In Sudha Kongara’s film
Thangam, a thug asks, “Why does he keep strutting around like a girl?” about Sattar, a transwoman. Without batting an eyelid, Saravanan responds, “Does he ask why we horse around like men?”
4-MIN READ
Paava Kadhaigal Review: Stories of Sin Traverse a Boringly Beaten Path
Movies and the media have often gone to town with these kinds of stories, and Paava Kadhaigal offers nothing different not even a few add-ons!
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Directors: Sudha Kongara, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Vignesh Shivan, Vetrimaaran
Cast: Kalidas Jayaram, Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, Bhavani Sre, (Kongara s Thangam), Simran, Gautham Vasudev Menon (Menon s Vaanmagal), Kalki Koechlin, Anjali (Shivan s Love Panna Uttranum), Sai Pallavi, Prakash Raj (Vetrimaaran s Ooru Iravu)
Netflix s Paava Kadhaigal (Sinful Stories), an anthology of four episodes comes a couple of months after Amazon Prime had played Putham Pudhu Kaalai, with its five short stories. While the two series dealt with different aspects of life – Paava Kadhaigal is about sin and the sordid, Putham Pudhu Kaalai was about life and living. Sudha Kongara and Gautham Vasudev Menon feature in both anthologies.
Prakash Raj and Sai Pallavi in Paava Kadhaigal (2020) | RSVP/Flying Unicorn Entertainment/Netflix
In the latest Netflix anthology film centred around a theme, a trans woman sacrifices her love for her sister, twin sisters tackle their hypocritical father, parents deal with the rape of their teenaged daughter, and a pregnant woman sees her father in a new light.
The often violent defence of honour, especially in the name of caste, and the burden borne by women during this exercise unites the four mini-narratives in
Paava Kadhaigal (Stories of Sin)
. The Tamil-language anthology film follows
Bombay Talkies, about the Hindi film industry,