Aramm

First of all let me say that I haven’t seen a movie in Tamil in the recent past where the actors who appear in really small roles have performed this good. I am talking about Aramm, the new movie starring Nayanthara in the lead role. It has been conceived as a bore well rescue mission thriller with the usual battle between bureaucrats and politicians. But beyond that there are some things that this movie touches which gives us an agonizing view about the future.

A rural village in Tamil Nadu hit by draught is facing a lot of issue due to lack of water. While the protest against the incapability of the authorities to handle the situation was going on, one day a girl child fell in to a bore well which wasn’t closed. The situation becomes more serious as the already frustrated local people fumed over the behavior of the authorities. District collector Madhivadhani is in charge of the situation and she is in that conflicted zone where she needs to handle the situation sensibly and also handle the political pressure. How she handles this situation is what the movie talking about.

The director of the film is Mr. Gopi Nainar, who became famous when he lodged a complaint against A R Murugadoss saying Murugadoss had stolen his story and made the movie Katthi. Well in the case of Aramm, the premise has a similarity with Kathhi as the farmer/ draught issue is a backdrop of the story. What I really liked about Aramm is its unadulterated treatment.  Even a film like Mersal needed a commercial packaging to address an important issue. But here Nainar keeps it to the point and hits really hard. He mocks the patriotic outbursts of a particular class by showing how less we have done for the poor people who are a majority in India.

Nayanthara has got a character that blends in with the situation. Because of the fact that there are no over the top “heroics” by this character, the decision to cast her becomes a good choice and I think that has helped the director to keep the movie in that realistic zone focusing only on the issues he wanted to address. Ramachandran Durairaj as the father of the kid and Sunu Lakshmi as the mother deliver a commendable performance. Like I said in the beginning, from the set of actors who has got relatively good screen time to those who appears in just one scene, the level of earnestness in performance is quite appreciable.

The film’s approach towards the conflict is what makes it more intriguing. When you get to see the story of that family and the dreams of those kids, Nainar isn’t placing it just to show us the reality of the poor people. Along with that he uses the character elements to justify the climax act which some viewers might find uncomfortable. There also the good thing is that the central character is getting questioned for that crucial decision. The cinematography was really good depicting the gravity of the situation. The level of detailing done to make the whole rescue operation look authentic deserves appreciation. The narrative pattern has a back and forth nature which occasionally misses the fire in the whole narrative.  Looking at the stardom Nayanthara enjoys and the way this film ends, one might see a political intention. But I would say Nayanthara at no point hijacks the relevance of the theme.

Aramm is a hard hitting political thriller which approaches a subject with least amount of commercial compromises. By adding realistic problems and sensible reactions to the conflict from characters, Gopi Nainar succeeds in making us invested in his story telling.

Rating: 3.5/5