The film sticks to its central story faithfully without resorting to obvious commercial constraints and that is its biggest strength. Technically, the conceiving of scenes with several memorable moments, some brilliant transitions (the opening stabbing to the coconut being grated), the awesome use of actual locations and the dynamic shot taking ensure that film is miles ahead of any offering from Hindi cinema and reaffirms recent Tamil cinema’s extreme competence in terms of finding new and innovative ways to tell its stories. The screenplay is tightly knit, well-worked out with each and every character well fleshed out and moves at a rapid pace to an absolutely emotionally walloping climax that makes you feel like you’ve been hit in the solar plexus and had your guts pulled out, as the lovers have to pay heavily for the criminal’s past.
Violence is an accepted part of their lives and we see this not just in the fights and killings, but also in the regular dialogue of the film where everyone including the women talk aggressively with everyone else and are always threatening the other person at the drop of a hat that they would break their bones or kill them should their honour be attacked!Īdmittedly, the elements the film works with especially the central love story of a high caste girl with the half-caste criminal are not exactly new and Tamil cinema has broached such topics even earlier through the 1970s and 80s from the days of Balu Mahendra, K Balachandar and Bharathiraja and the Thevar community itself was the backdrop for the Kamal Haasan starrer, Thevar Magan (1992), but Paruthiveeran still scores and scores heavily with its fresh cinematic treatment and style. They may live frugally if they have to, but would still kill to maintain tradition, family honour and pride. The film is set in the dry, arid land of Madurai district in Tamil Nadu in South India dominated by the Thevar community, a warrior clan propelled by fierce caste fanaticism. Immediately as you see the attention paid to detail and the brilliant way in which the local atmosphere has been captured, you know you are watching something special.
The film takes you in and grips you right from the beginning with the temple function that is amazingly recreated. It is after a while that one has seen a mainstream Indian film with such sure-handed directorial control and apt use of cinematic craft. With this, his third film, Ameer Sultan goes way beyond his earlier two films, Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002) and Raam (2005), and establishes himself as a director of much merit. It is a harsh, violent tale that possesses a rawness and authenticity that is at once both hard-hitting and captivating and stuns you into silence by the time it finishes its running time. Paruthiveeran is easily one of the best Tamil films in the last decade. But Paruthiveeran’s past catches up with him in a most unexpected way… Paruthiveeran leaves from there threatening to kill Muthalagu if she is wed elsewhere. He approaches her father, who obviously is furious with him for even daring to ask for Muthalagu’s hand and that too in his house. Sevvalai convinces Paruthiveeran of Muthalagu’s love for him and Paruthiveeran too decides to marry her. The two families have been at loggerheads ever since. Her father, a caste fanatic, had broken off ties with his brother when he married a low caste woman, the daughter of the woman he worked for. As they grow up, Paruthiveeran (Karthi) and his uncle, Sevvalai (Saravanan), are small time thugs spending regular periods in jail while Muthalagu (Priyamani), a school going lass, obsessively pursues Paruthiveeran much to his irritation and especially to her father’s (Ponvannan) consternation. In childhood, the half-caste Paruthiveeran saves his cousin, the high caste Thevar girl, Muthalagu, after she falls into the well.
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