Always there is, was and will be a category called “Parallel Cinema” which cannot blend with mainstream though there are some movies emerging in a new category “Intermediate Cinema” having the characteristics of both the forms of entertainment. So far I have never watched so called “Art films” in big screens; It was a different experience watching this movie in a cinema hall.
Oruththi (A Girl) is a Tamil movie directed by Amshan kumar, who had directed many other noteworthy and award winning short films and documentaries. “Orutththi” is based on a short story called “Kidai (Sheep Pen)” written by Sahithya Academy winner Ki. Rajanarayanan.
Story in Detail: (For Those Who Don’t Want Can Skip to My Review)
Oruththi is a movie about a bold and brave Oruththi (girl) called “Sevani”. The movie is set in pre independence era, 1884.
Sevani and the Village
Sevani is a brave and bold girl living in water starved remote village of Tamilnadu called Aalampatti. The people are very much dependant on rain for their harvest. The village was under British control and the people are supposed to pay tax to the government through Zamindar who has control over the village. As there is no rain people struggle a lot to pay the tax because if they don’t pay the tax they have to face brutal punishments of Zamindar. But the Zamindar who not only imposes heavy tax on the people but also didn’t pay the tax to the British government and he was a living a luxurious life with all the money. People didn’t know this fact.
Sevani and her love with Ellappa swamy
Meanwhile Sevani (from a lower caste family) loves Ellappa swamy who is from an upper caste family and also the son of the head of the village. Ellappa swamy promises Sevani that he would marry her at any cause and will never mind about the caste. One fine day Sevani loses herself to Ellapa’s sexual desire but she is not worried as she is very much confident in marrying him.
Sevani and British Officer
Then one day an officer comes from township to the village and asks the Zamindar about the tax which he didn’t pay the British government for past 5 years. Zamindar could not give a proper answer. But this brave girl goes and meets the British officer directly and tells him that we have been paying tax in spite of all starvation and she says that Zamindar levies too much of tax which cannot be paid by them. British officer understands the situation of the villagers and writes a letter to the British government to make it possible for the people to pay the tax directly to the government. The government accepts his suggestion and does the necessary. But on the other side Sevani is brutally punished up by the Zamindar for her deeds.
Sevani and Ellapa’s Marriage
The villagers are very happy on hearing this and they all feel very much thankful to “Sevani” for her brave effort. At this time, everybody come to know about the love between Sevani and Ellapa swamy. Though the village heads are thankful to Sevani they feel very much hesitant to accept this love and marriage between Sevani and Ellappa reason being she belongs to a lower caste family.
Final Decision of Village heads and Sevani
As the village heads are interested to do some favor for Sevani in return, they accept for their marriage but with a condition that the couple should run away from this village after their marriage and never return as it may degrade the prestige of their caste if they allow such inter caste marriage inside this village. But, Sevani refuses to marry Ellappa with this condition. She says she can’t leave the mother land, the soil, the mountains, the trees, and the village people that love a lot for her marriage to happen. She makes a final statement on the coward decision of the village heads, “You were happy to receive all the help and the good deeds that a lower caste girl did for the welfare of the village without any hesitance but now you feel hesitant allowing this inter caste marriage just for the reason that I come from a lower caste family”. Finally she decides to live alone happily and starts her routine life but Ellappa leads a happy life with two wives (bigamy is a usual practice those days) and he is not at all bothered about Sevani.
Review:
To Start with the movie was stunning and surprising package at least to me as I am watching this kind of movie for the first time in a big screen.
And the reasons are
The movie is so simple but authentic to the period in every aspect in spite of a shoe string budget. The art direction by A.C.Pillai, Costume design, Cinematography by P.S.Tharan gives us a real picture of the raw water starved village of those days. But as a matter of fact, we have such villages even now, still under developed in the same condition as it was 100 years before so they may not have struggled a lot to bring the authenticity on screen, if they have gone to some remote place to shoot the film. But in the technical side, they should have concentrated more on lip-synch because in some scenes the dialogues and the lip movements doesn’t match.
The movie was never boring even without any commercial elements. The screenplay is a good mix of all human emotions. Even the movie has a good usage of humor. Kudos to the director for maintaining a good tempo in the movie.
Down to earth performances of unknown actors. Poorvaja is the only known face in the movie as she has acted in lot of TV serials. She is apt for the role of a courageous girl and the whole movie is on her shoulders but she handles it with ease. One could see a right blend of innocence and boldness in her face. Bala singh as detective and Ganesh Babu as Ellapa Swamy are decent. All the others has lived in their characters with an exception of who enacts the British officer role, his expressions are flat most of the time.
The movie revealed about many things that I didn’t know about our villagers, their habits and habitats in those days. The male chauvinism, selfish attitude of men, bigamy, luxurious life of lethargic Zamindars, dictatorship of Zamindars, Innocence of the villagers, Caste discrimination, the way the rumors spread like a virus in a village full of Naïve people, presence of entertaining art forms like “Villupattu” in those days, women’s urge in those days to study, a bold dalit girl amidst all these in such an era.
The background music by L.Vaithiyanathan is outstanding. The main title with flute and female vocal is melodious and blends well the mood of the film. It has been used at many places all through the movie. The solo violin pieces elevates the scenes especially the pathetic situation of poor, helpless uncle of Sevani. The usage of traditional instruments gives an authentic sound to this period village fiction.
The characterization of “Sevani” is good. Sevani must be a fictional character. But I admire that character a lot. She is too bold and courageous to believe even it is hard to see such woman in this era. Her boldness is highlighted well especially many scenes. Also she has portrayed her as a girl who is longing to study and write, just watch out the scene the way she watched the British officer writing the letter.
On the whole don’t miss the movie if you get a chance to see when aired in DD.