IRAVIN NIZHAL (2022)

Critic No.286

Director: R Parthiban

Written by: R Parthiban

Produced by: Bioscope Film Framers, Akira Film Productions

Casts: R Parthiban, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Robo Shankar, Brigida Saga, Sai Priyanka Ruth, Sneha Kumar, Rekha Nair

Music: A.R.Rahman

Language: Tamil

Genre: Drama

SYNOPSIS: 

Nandhu, a financier, journeys through the struggles of his internal guilt while searching for his mortal rival. The film revolves around Nandhu who has been hardened by the hardship and abuses he has suffered since childhood. He is tormented by his past as he tries to forge his life forward.     

REVIEW:

One can be assured when entering the halls to see Parthiban’s film that they will be witnessing something that is extraordinary or unique. Some of his attempts work but some feel like a wasted, self indulgent shot. Nevertheless, he never stops trying and with his recent form with Otha Seruppu (2019), I was all thrilled to witness another different film from the veteran. 

Before the actual film, a making of featurette is played and it really hooks you right away. Labeled to be the world's first single-shot non-linear film, in the featurette, we see the blood, sweat and tears that had gone into making this film in one 96-minute-long unb shot. It raises our heart beat as we witness the team’s inventiveness in building the world of this film, the heartbreaks when minor mistakes result in the team having to shoot the film all over (one crane error at the 92nd minute would have definitely been soul-crushing), and the celebration of victory when they finally manage to get it all right in the 23rd take. As the featurette ends there, I was all thrilled to witness the world of Iravin Nizhal. 

The film opens with Nandu (Parthiban), a film financier, learning that the cops are about to arrest him, and making a run, with a gun, which he hopes to use on Patamananda (Robo Shankar), a fake godman, who is the reason for his position now. As he lays waiting for his target at a dilapidated ashram, he recounts his eventful life, the people who pushed him into darkness, his sins and the one flicker of light that's still part of his life that offers him a shot at redemption. Of course, told in a non-linear the film moves back and forth between 1971, the year of Nandu's birth in a  horrifically heartbreaking circumstance, to his sinful teenage years and the present, which is no better than any of the other phases that he has encountered.

The film travels through Parthiban’s rhymed words of confessions with his typical touches of wordplay.  He also occasionally throwback to his Puthiya Pathai notes, especially when he marries a girl he forcefully had raped.Visually, Parthiban also tries his best to throw in some creative symbols to engage us. In the opening scene, Nandhu enters the graveyard through a hole he breaks open in a wall, while we hear a baby’s wail in the background — as if a metaphor on him returning to mother’s womb. An atheist man who has only seen downers in life names his daughter, Arputham. Ironically, the girl calls him ‘thappa’ (mistake) instead of ‘appa’, as if a reminder of who he is: someone who got on the wrong side. These are just Parthiban things that of course touches the over indulgent area many times affecting the engagement factor of the film. 

Despite the technical achievement and how each scene moves from set to set (sadly visually looking like an expensive, moving stage play), the story and characters are as old as a hill, riding on predictable, tested themes that even the filmmaker have touched before in his previous 90s films. By the time it hits the climax, we are unable to root for Nandhu but we cannot stop but appreciate Parthiban for his efforts. 

A.R.Rahman’s haunting music elevates the film’s familiar notes. The endlessly inventive Iravin Nizhal owes a great deal to the production design - it took two years of planning and execution to set up the 50-odd spaces in which the film was shot. Of course Arthur A Wilson’s camera team’s tremendous efforts can be seen in each frame. The film wouldn’t have had the seamless transitions without the work of the Gimbal operator on whose shoulders the film literally rested. 

Besides Parthiban’s fiery act, newcomers Brigida and Anandhakrishnan do leave an impact. Other actors appear more in a blink or miss roles. This brings me to address that the story doesn’t have much memorable or thickly written supporting characters, 

Though Iravin Nizhal might not be as sharp and engaging as Otha Seruppu, Parthiban seems to be enjoying taking risks and we cannot wait for his next daring attempt! 

VERDICT:

R Parthiban’s single shot, non-linear film is undoubtedly a remarkable technical achievement that leaves us enthralled by the craft more than the thin, predictable storytelling.

CELLULOID METER- 3/5: