Blood Lines
Sai and Prakash Raj in a still from Oor Iravu
A new Tamil anthology film makes a flawed but genuine attempt to grapple with the tragic effects of our national preoccupation ‘family honour’.
At the very end of
Love Panna Uttranum, Vignesh Shivan’s segment in the newly released
Tamil anthology film Paava Kadhaigal (Sinful Tales), there is a textual postscript that tells us what happened to the characters after the film’s end. One of the lines read: “Veerasimman managed to escape from the village and went to live with his daughter in Paris.” I scoffed mentally when I read it. because
Paava Kadhaigal Review: Star Rating: 3.5/5 Stars (Three and a half Stars)
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âDiscrimination’ is a word that has become a part of our vocabulary for years now and practised in our society for as long as we know. Paava Kadhaigal that hits Netflix today brings together 4 of the most woke and noteworthy Tamil filmmakers Sudha Kongara, Vignesh Shivan, Gautham Menon and Vetrimaaran to create an anthology that portrays shades of discrimination and what it costs to the people who dream. While Sudhaâs Thangam left me shattered, read on to know what I felt about the others.
Thangam
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Heads up, this is THE best short in Paava Kadhaigal that is raw and doesnât require polished edges. Sudha Kongara, for the ones who have seen her work, has a perspective that takes you through the evil and leaves you at a possible redemption. With Thangam, Kongara does not take that route, rather she leaves you in the dystopia that we are living in for ages now. Centre
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,