GARGI (2022)
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| Critic No 284 |
Director: Gautham Ramachandran
Written by: Hariharan Raju, Gautham Ramachandran
Produced by: Blacky, Genie & My Left Foot Productions
Casts: Sai Pallavi, Kaali Venkat, R.S.Shivaji, Krishnan, Saravanan
Music: Govind Vasantha
Language: Tamil
Genre: Drama
SYNOPSIS:
Gargi (Sai Pallavi) works as a school teacher and is getting hitched to her boyfriend Balaji. But her world comes crashing down when her 60-year-old father Brahmanandam (RS Shivaji) is arrested for the gang rape of a minor girl.
REVIEW:
It is almost unbelievable to know that the director who made a stylistic but mediocre film, Ritchie (2017) is behind this hard hitting drama that consumes you into the world right from the first frame. The film kicks off with the protagonist, Gargi, with her colleagues in the staff room in school. They see a news report about a gang rape of a minor. When a colleague tells her that the apartment being shown on TV seems to be one in her locality, she just shrugs it off. Gargi’s are more focused on her marriage, the demands that her boyfriend Pazhani's family seem to be placing on her lower middle-class family. But in the next scene, we see that the news about the rape has registered with her, for we get a flashback into an episode from her own life. We see this further when she reaches home and worries about her teenage sister who hasn't returned home yet.
Gautham Ramachandran sets up quickly on how a news can be just a matter of fact until it reaches close to home. He raises a question clearly at the start - what if we become part of such reports? How will that change one’s perspective towards the issue?
As the synopsis suggests, a rape case changes Gargi’s life when her 60-year-old father Brammananda (RS Sivaji), who works as a security guard, is also one of the accused in the gang rape about at the starting scene of the film. Hell breaks loose as the identity of her father is revealed by the media and Gargi's family becomes ostracized, with the public and the media baying for her father's blood. How Gargi proves the innocence of the father forms the crux of the story.
Gargi successfully achieves a racy mood without the simmering tension that you would usually associate with a whodunit. With tame pace and naturalistic staging, it goes about peeling off layers of characters, even as Govind Vasantha's music adds mood to the visuals by Sraiyanti and Premkrishna Akkatu. The film is all about perspectives. At one side, a daughter is trying to save her father and then there's a father whose daughter has been molested. Meanwhile, there is another father whose daughter is going to get married. Witnessing all this, there’s us, the audience, watching this edgy courtroom drama in awe as the film journeys through gut wrenching twists and turns.
The casting feels perfect. Sai Pallavi carries the film on her shoulder with her powerful eyes and subtle performance. Even Though the character had a lot of potential to step into the melodramatic region, Sai Pallavi grips her character tightly to display a naturalistic performance, putting the audience in her mindscape at many times.
The supporting cast is brilliant as well, which includes Saravanan, as the father of the survivor, who is consumed by both grief and horror, Kavithalaya Krishnan, as an overbearing public prosecutor, Livingston, who plays a security guard in the same apartment as Brammananda. RS Sivaji's frail physique and earnest face help us buy into his hapless situation. My favourite of all after Sai Pallavi was Kaali Venkat, who brings out the vulnerability, grit and affability of this underdog character. He is one underrated actor who is often used as a ridiculously written sidekick. He proves his full mettle by showing what he can do if he is given a powerful character.
I just wished that the film had explored the journalist character (Aishwarya Lekshmi) and Gargi's other family members were given more purpose, given that the film revolves around them. The casting of transgender as the lawyer is noteworthy and brings us a whistle worthy moment with a pivotal dialogue at the courtroom. However, I just felt that it was a forced shot to play with irony and to insert in society's impression on them.
That said, ‘Gargi’ is no doubt a milestone film in Kollywood and Gautham Ramachandran is definitely a great storyteller to look out for.
VERDICT:
With layered writing, strong characters and impressive performances, ‘Gargi’ punches us in the gut with the story of perspectives, journeying through the dark state of sexual abuse in India.
CELLULOID METER- 4.5/5:
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