Paradesi Movie Review

Starring : Adharvaa, Vedhika, Dhansika

Direction : Bala

Music : GV Prakash Kumar

Production : B Studios

Bala, the director who gave us hard hitting realistic films is back with Paradesi. First of all Paradesi is not a regular entertaining film. It is a film which brilliantly portrays the cruel slavery in the name of Tea plantation.

The film opens with “Chalur”, a simple village. People in the village were not rich but they live their life happily. Raja (Atharva) or ottuporuki (this is how people calls him) is an innocent guy who is the announcer in the village. Angama (Vedhika) a boyish girl who falls in love with Raja. The life of the people in Chalur village goes well until a guy, from tea estate comes and books the entire people for tea cultivation. The rest of the story tells us the heart haunting life of the innocent people.

Bala is known for his brilliant characterization and once again he proves that he is best in it. Each and every character in the film is awesome. There are so many awe moments in the film like “When a family hides a person’s death during marriage function as it should not stop the village people in eating good food”. Bala clearly shown the cruel capitalism in many scenes and every scene has an underlying message. Especially the hard hitting climax conveys the total pain of slavery.

Atharva lived the character as innocent Raja, especially his mannerism and expressions are perfect. When Atharva says “ Rasa Vandiyavutruven” it is so touching. Vedhika as Angama is beautiful and her expressions are so cute. Both Atharva and Vedhika share an awesome chemistry in the climax and the scene don’t have much dialogue.

Dhanshikaa plays a bold character and she did her role to the perfection. Dhanshikaa ‘s voice suits the character and even her character was sketched so beautifully.

The film’s greatest strength is GV Prakash Kumar’s music and Chezhiyan’s camera. Be it the background score or the songs GV Prakash has done a brilliant job, especially the climax BGM gives us goose bumps. Chezhiyan’s camera work is scintillating and he did a fabulous job in portraying 1930’s India.

Nanjil Nadan’s dialogue is perfect and he has done a good research in reprising the 1930’s dialects and slang. Editing by Kishore T.E is crisp and clear.

Overall Paradesi has Bala’s stam all over. It might not engage the mass audience but the film is world class in the lines of Schindler’s list and sure to win so much of accolades for Paradesi team.

Verdict : Hard hitting film