Tamil cinema has a category of loud dramas that industry professionals refer to as B and C center movies. These are movies targeted for the rural audience who still like the template of comedy + songs + action + sentiments. We do see even popular actors trying this once in a while to maintain a market. Thaai Kizhavi is like, what if a niche movie without any superstar support decides to opt for this on your face messaging thing? The last 15 minutes of the movie are the area where the director Sivakumar Murugesan is conveying his politics through dialogue. What happens till that point is a slog that tries too many things.
Pavunuthaayi, our title character, is a matriarchal figure to a whole village. She has a very strained relationship with her sons. Her only daughter, who is separated from her husband, is living with her. Pavunuthaayi has a money-lending business, and for that reason, many people in the village hate her because she has a routine of visiting them to collect the interest. What we see here are the events that unfold when she gets diagnosed with a medical condition.
The central idea of the movie is actually an interesting one. Sivakumar Murugesan is using a character that feels like a representation of the orthodox mentality, and through that character, he is trying to give this message about the need for financial independence of women. There is this beautiful line in the movie where Pavunuthaayi says what she was able to achieve in her 60’s was achieved by her daughter in her 30’s. Her granddaughter could have that freedom in her teens, and hopefully, that will transpire into a scenario where people would look at a newborn girl as someone with her own choice and independence. On paper, the fact that a movie that targets the rural audience talks about progressive politics like this is a satisfying thing to see. However, to reach that point, Sivakumar Murugesan is taking this bloated comedy route that will only work for those who love the melodrama and comedy in the recent works of someone like Pandiraj.
After establishing the central character in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie, the story shifts into the mood of a funeral comedy. Satirically taking a dig at the obsession for possession is what the director is trying to show here. But as I said, the pitch of the comedy is on the skit joke level. Every character is a caricature, and the movie is actually going after the character quirks to create humor. One son of Pavunuthaayi loves Kamal Haasan, another son loves money more than anything, and the third one has a flower stall but doesn’t know how to make a garland. Then you have this drunkard character who is getting paid to keep a diya alive in a local temple. Sivakumar Murugesan is using that character to mock a certain belief system in our society. There is an emotional point in the movie where seeing something tragic changes the perspective of one son, and that happens in a very abrupt and extremely melodramatic manner. The screenplay of the movie, for a larger part of its runtime, almost 80%, I would say, is dependent on humor that was extremely optional.
Radhika Sarathkumar plays the role of Pavunuthaayi in this movie, and I must say that the makeup, along with prosthetics, really works. She makes it even more authentic with that roughness in the dialect. In terms of screentime, she is perhaps there for the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes. But the impact was there for sure. Singampuli, with his squeaky voice, manages to crack some humor. Aruldoss is playing the role of the second son of Pavunuthaayi. Bala Saravanan gets a role that is pretty much in his zone, and it works in certain scenes. The most subtle and perhaps equally memorable role as Pavunuthaayi is played by Raichal Rabecca. Munishkanth’s character’s placement in the entirety of the screenplay has a purpose. But the overtly comical and melodramatically sentimental presentation of that character is a letdown.
The sequence I mentioned in the beginning, where Pavunuthaayi gives a lecture to all the women in her family about financial independence, is going to be trending in reels and stuff when the movie is released on OTT. But when you look at this movie as a whole, it is like waiting for something as impactful as this particular scene by suffering through sequences that only manage to make you giggle occasionally. From whatever material is released so far, Seyon, Sivakumar Murugesan’s next one with Sivakarthikeyan as the hero, is also a story set against the backdrop of a village. I hope this time his script will focus more on the craft of storytelling rather than trying to be an awareness campaign.
