Chandi Veeran

After two impressive films, Kalavani and Vaagai Sooda Vaa, Sarkunam slipped up big time with Naiyyandi. Chandi Veeran is better than that film but this is not a return-to-form by any means. At its best, the film recalls the inventiveness we saw in the director's first two films, though nothing here matches their flair. Even structurally, the film feels like a sort-of Kalavani-meets-Vaagai Sooda Vaa, with the first act and the epilogue trying to humour us the way former did while the central knot — a water crisis — has the gravitas of the latter.

But to get to that, we have to spend quite a lot of time on things that are inconsequential to the plot. Right from his debut film, Sarkunam has shown that he prefers to tell his story in a languid manner. He is not a filmmaker who uses the jump cut as if his very life depended on it. This style suited Kalavani, which was a rural romcom, and in Vaagai Sooda Vaa, it made sense because of the film's setting — the late 60s. But here, the initial setup feels overlong and uninteresting. Too much time is spent over the villagers' attitude towards people who have done time in prisons in Singapore or Malaysia. Too much time is also spent on the been-there-seen-that romance between Paari (a fine Atharvaa) and Thamarai (Anandhi, who smiles a little too much in most scenes), which, while crucial to the plot, never makes us care — they have been attracted towards each other since they were young and start wooing one another as soon as Paari returns to the village after being deported from Singapore.

These scenes are juxtaposed with scenes from the neighbouring village, Vayalpaadi, which depends on the water from a pond in Paari's village, Nedungaadu. But Nedungaadu's big shots, which include Thamarai's father, a rice mill owner (a miscast Lal), and the panchayat president, are against giving water to the village. Thamarai's father actually has got the pond in an auction and pollutes its water on purpose. But Paari, whose father di...