[SPOILERS AHEAD…]

Official trailer:

In Peranbu, we follow the coming of age of Amudhavan, father of spastic daughter, how he relearns the environment and world around him as he connects with his daughter. We get a peek into few incidents of Amudhavan’s life as chapters. I have nothing but great appreciation for Director Ram, for his vision, diving deep on the issue, boldness, and sensitive handling. When is the last time we got a movie that explored sexual feelings? I could think of Azhiyatha Kolangal by Balu Mahendra, interestingly Ram’s mentor. You will get bowled over by the depth Ram gets in to the issue, but none of those are handled with an in your face approach, they are handled sensitively. Sensitively handled, yes, but be warned that there are few scenes which will feel like someone plunged a knife in your gut, because they are so real, they happen in the society we are part of.

Chapters come in relationship with nature, like nature is atrocious, nature is perverse, nature is miracle, nature is wonderful, nature is love, etc. Not able to bring up his spastic daughter, Pappa, in city after his wife leaves him for another person, Amudhavan moves to an isolated place, which looks like Eden. As Amudhavan slowly succeeds in winning her daughter’s trust, we also see the transition in his view of the world. He stops judging people. At one point he says, his wife is not a bad woman. In another, he doesn’t want to know why Viji did what she did. I am sure someone is going to ask Director Ram to let us know why Viji did it in one of the interviews😀 He doesn’t judge Meera by her profession. This characterization may look extreme, but that is Amudhavan. While he succeeds in connecting with his daughter, due to turn of events, he realizes his selfishness of isolating Pappa from social interaction. He moves back to city, which is an extension of nature with its mix of perversion, harshness, and yes, great love. He struggles with not able to get a caretaker or a good home for Pappa, not having enough money, plus Pappa becoming self-aware about her body and adolescent feelings. This is where I got fully  impressed with Ram’s boldness. He delves deeper with dexterity  without making the audience twitch in their seats.

Great contribution from Theni Eashwar and Yuvan Shankar Raja in realizing Ram’s vision. BGM is key for this movie, music director has to get in to the mood of the story and narration, and YSR has done an excellent job. Mammootty, Sadhana, Anjali, and Anjali Ameer nail their characters. After few minutes in to the movie, we see only Amudhavan, not Mammootty. He makes us feel the defeated emotion Amudhavan goes through.

Minor nitpicking. I would have liked to see more screen time for Meera, adding more weight to her character. Few interaction scenes between Amudhavan and Meera post the beach scene would have added more arc to the happy ending.

Underlying theme in the movie is that while the society may look down and frown upon people who are different and discriminate, nature doesn’t. Nature gives the same feelings to everyone irrespective of their class, or ability. Movie leaves you with lots of thoughts. Why Pappa doesn’t have an avenue to explore her sexual feelings while Meera gets pushed in to prostitute profession? Amudhavan’s poser on the idea of arranged marriage? As a society, when we will openly start talking about adolescent feelings and cover that as part of our education system?

In the lines of Merku Thodarchi Malai, Pariyerum Perumal, Kolamavu Kokila, Ratsasan, 96, and Kanaa (ignoring the minor intro for Sivakarthikeyan), very heartening to see Peranbu, where content is king and team fits in to director’s vision. No hero introduction scenes, no talking across the fourth wall, and no winking at fans. Let the trend continue.