Paava Kadhaigal (2020): Vignesh Shivan & his Paava co-directors
- Miss Belivet
- Dec 19, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 19, 2020
Have you ever been in a group project and had one teammate who lived in a world of their own and their sole purpose in the team was to destroy your final product and never listen to the opinions of the rest of your teammates? Well, that 1 teammate is Vignesh Shivan. Paava Kadhaigal comes close to Soorarai Pottru as one of the best Indian content to have released on OTT. If it wasn’t for Vignesh Shivan’s abhorrent piece, it might have gotten the top spot! It has three beautiful stories that moved me to tears and one sucky, queerbaiting story that we could’ve done without :)
I thought of giving an overall review of the anthology but each of the three films deserves a paragraph of their own...so here it goes!
"Thangam" by Sudha Kongara
Sudha Kongara reminds us, once again, why she's one of the best directors Tamil Cinema has to offer. An achingly beautiful tale of a queer man's unrequited love. Kalidas Jayaram's performance as Sattar tugs your heart as he holds your hands through each stage of Sattar's love and loss. Kudos to the lyricist of the song, "Thangame". The first song in mainstream Tamil cinema about a queer man's love (that I know of!). After seeing this masterpiece by Sudha Kongara, you fail to understand how the producers even dared to include the next film in the anthology.
2. "Love Panna Uttranum" by Vignesh Shivan
This film does not deserve a breakdown at all. Instead, I will share with you what it means to Queerbait. In an interview with Film Companion, Vignesh Shivan (16:00 - 17:00), says he is scared because his film will even be viewed by his family. GVM & Vetrimaran jokingly add that his thumbnail will attract most viewers to watch his movie first before viewing theirs. We all know that the thumbnail they are talking about is Kalki & Anjali's character in an intimate position. Well, on Netflix, they just seem to be leaning onto each other. Now back to my point - Queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. Identifying accurate Queer representation in Tamil Cinema is like finding a needle in a haystack. If that wasn't enough, in Love Panna Uttranum, Shivan goes to the extent of making fun of the word "lesbian" (ESPN????) and has no room for any kind of queer relationship at all - even though his film was marketed as one. There is a lengthy kiss shared between Kalki & Anjali's character which added NO value to the narrative. That, my friends, is a textbook example of the male gaze and how male filmmakers use a lesbian relationship to titillate male audience...Interestingly, there is a section in the film that shows the men in the film being in awe of that kiss...and god knows what else. Was there even a need for Anjali's character to be lesbian in the film? HELL NO. Forget queerbaiting, this film was just bad filmmaking under the guise of "black comedy". With this film, Vignesh Shivan tried undoing Kalki's impact and contribution to the queer community she made with her film Margarita With A Straw. If you want to read more about the fetishisation of lesbian relationships in films:
3. "Vaanmagal" by Gautham Vasudev Menon
This film comes close to being my favourite, second to just Kongara's Thangam. It's the story of a little happy family's world that changes forever after a ghastly incident. GVM's use of visuals to show the irony of some very important dialogues have got to be MY favourite aspect of the film. This film may have people rebutting with the classic argument "Not all men" but GVM squashes that when he says he feels ashamed to be a man in this world. My favourite performance in this short has to be that of the girl who plays Ponnuthayi. A film that's relevant today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow too. With a conclusion that seems ideal, but not very feasible under the law, GVM makes us question the notion of what it means to be a woman and what it takes to be a man.
4. "Oor Iravu" by Vetrimaaran
I had to mentally prepare myself to watch this film because I know of and heard of real incidents like this. Honour killings are very much present in today's day and age. That is the world we live in. I'm glad Vetrimaaran chose to direct this story because only he could've brought the grit and authenticity this film needed. Sai Pallavi's performance was A+! But what I loved was the depth of Prakash Raj's character. In Vignesh Shivan's film, we see a similar character with no emotions or whatsoever. Vetrimaaran's film has just the right amount of grit and heart and undoubtedly elevates the quality of the anthology.
Long story short - the world we live in sucks for women & queer folk.
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