Against the wind!

Pariyerum Perumal (2018)
Story & Direction: Mari Selvaraj

The world out there is just there to bring you down. Those who succeed in life do so not because of the people around them but, despite the people breathing down their necks. The world is cruel, and every living day can be a struggle for some. But, the successful indeed have a treasure chest full of adventures and near-misses stories to tell about their journey to victory. These rag to riches stories may inspire another foothill soldier at the foot of the hill to scale greater heights. And at the end of the day, the ferocious desire to succeed burns within the individual. Events around him spark the tinder.

This is one such story of a person from the marginalised part of society trying against all odds to fit into Law College. He befriends a fellow female student who seems to be fond of him. Sure, we have seen such movies. A lone wolf with fighting skills that Hercules would be ashamed of, bulldozing through the army of the oppressors and proving his worth by the end of the film. Well, this one is different.

Equipped with picturesque aerial views of the Tamil Nadu countryside and the chaotic depiction of Thirunaveli town, we are shown caste discrimination. At the same time, it also exposes the broken education system where the underqualified is pushed up the ladder of education not based on their educational achievements but just to satisfy quotas of affirmative action. Imagine the protagonist entering a Law College without mastering simple English. The system failed, not that he is not clever; his school did provide good teachers.

His coursemates look at him with disdain for slowing them down and depriving another higher achiever of contributing to society from the word get-go. Despite the encouragement of others from the same boat, unshackling from the biases of society is not easy. The raging hormones of the young body are not helping either.

The story tells the transformation of a timid young man who grows up knowing his sanctioned place in society and not wanting to rock the boat to a hot-blooded bloke who screams out to exert his rightful place in the community - all done in a progressive art form that infuses celluloid artistry and real-life reality. The song 'Karuppi, Karuppi' is catchy. It combines a Tamil funeral wailing rant (oppaari, ஒப்பாரி) with rap lyrics and modern musical instruments. 

This film is said to be able to showcase the plights of the backward classes in India, much as Speilberg's 'Schindler's List' did to highlight the pain that the Jews endured during the Nazi occupation. Discrimination amongst people is as old as civilisation itself. It cannot be resolved within a single generation. But, like how the movie ends, it all starts with sitting at the same table and sharing a drink together. That also is already a significant achievement in certain communities in India when a person of the lowest of the caste denomination can sit eye to eye sipping chai. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.