In the vicinity of the native I grew up Madurai, it is tough love. Tough love written with the knives and sickles. It does not cross the paths of the middle class family and when it does they are the collateral damage of a wrongly guided life of the poor and the desperate. But it does not start with money, not always. It is fed by the unconditional love shown between men to every one’s astonishment. The word and the acquaintance is gargantuan in some one not alone giving their life but taking one too, just as Azhagar (Jai) and Paraman (A. Sasikumar) do for Kanugu (Samutharakani), a family politically driven.Azhagar, Paraman and their clan comprising of Kasi (“Ganja” Karuppu), Toppa (actor unknown) and a crippled Dumku (actor unknown) hang out at the rental sound system shop of their friend Sithan (actor unknown). The film begins with a man being stabbed when he gets out of the prison and admitted in the present day while the story goes in the 1980s Madurai. Azhagar and Paraman are thick friends and do nothings wailing time through smokes, liquor and what we Madurai people call “toppu” meaning chatting.
Azhagar has a love interest Tulasi (Swathi), niece of Kanugu. Kanugu whose brothers are an ex-counsellor of the district and an another brother a typical executive of government. They are the one of many breeding circle of political recognition and the zeal for power. A. Sasikumar is also the director of the film who brings the nativity of the area much truthfully as “Paruthiveeran” did. The vicinity of Madurai is now the fodder for the film makers but Sasikumar does so with a first hand encounter of the place Subramaniapuram and if he is not from that place, then his research is terrific.
“Subramaniapuram” is a birth of a clan becoming hire for kill. After their debut kill for Kanugu when they are in the prison, a notable inmate Ravi asks why they did it and they reply “Pazhakkuthuthukku pannom” meaning “for acquaintance”. That is the reality of the place. It still runs in the streets of those places. As mentioned, the extremity of love and hate are scary. They would know you for a second and they will shower their love meaning every single action of it. And at the same time when betrayal happens, the wrath of their anger would never see the chance of redemption. The people there when dissected to their basic character have hard time controlling their animal instincts as the emotions are fondled (I corrected the previous sentence from "They are the people in a raw sense live with animal instincts." as when I read meant something different than I intended - Thanks to Mathi for pointing it out). Their care cannot be matched and so does their anger.
What is good about “Subramaniapuram” also becomes something of an uncomfortable factor. The intentions of Sasikumar is how the uneducated and misguided people in the parts become a victim of the politics which again has been executed very many times despite been done good, poses doubts on whether his target audience will look at it as a chance for seeing themselves on their extremes or glorify. The hard bound truth of the young and the adamant are easily moulded in the places like those. In the end though the tragedy is not lesson but an instigation of never ending vengeance. Whether the target audience in the end of it realize what Sasikumar intends to say is doubtful.
Dismissing the responsibility of the film, it is a true depiction of the slang, props and the society structure existing in that part of the country. Madurai has always been a nexus for the blend of the middle class who run the fulcrum of the educated society while the workers running the culture, tradition and mainly the survival of the humans, the agricultural business. When the festival of Lord Azhagar happens in the city and rests on the river Vaigai, you can see both of those society mingling with a visual rarely a city has. And Sasikumar exactly brings that. Not all the middle class are of the political mid section as the Kanugu family and not all the youngsters are the wrongly driven individuals like Azhagar and Paraman. But the situation crops in different scenarios involving politics, finance and illiteracy churning these young people in to a life of blood and violence.
While I liked the film very much, I completed it with an unfulfilling nature how the story did not resolve itself. From a film which starts out to be systematic about the minds of people being manipulated, it ends as a fictional short story of some kind strangely being real all the time in its characters. With most of the technicians and actors as debutants, it is a mark of a very professional worksmanship. James Vasanthan especially in his music has a good theme music to combine the dark, haunting and a sad piece to the film.
It is a sect of the state which is looked down upon on its violence while also been praised upon for its cultural heritage. But many forget the people in the place who have been brought up with the emotions blurting out in unexplainable acts. That is something a resident will be able to empathize. For every one the place they grew up marks a pride as Patrick Kensie would say in “Gone Baby Gone”. Madurai is a great pride among its residents for the people’s respect, affection and honesty. At the same time the violence and the bloodshed has also been considered as a day to day affair. Many speak about it as a part of life and in that there is no pride. One of the sad fact about “Subramaniapuram” is that and it slightly oversteps in glorifying it.
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