Pa Ranjith’s ‘Natchathiram Nagargiradhu’, with Dushara Vijayan, Kalidas Jayaram and Kalaiyarasan, is perfectly in sync with this filmmaker’s politics of inclusivity

Spoilers ahead…

Pa Ranjith’s cinema has always been about breaking the status quo. In , he breaks the boundaries between theatre and cinema. It takes a while to settle into this film’s rhythms – in a way, it is like watching filmed street theatre. But this experimentation in terms of form is perfectly in sync with this filmmaker’s politics of inclusivity. If everyone should be considered equal, then why should we discriminate between art forms? If a Dalit (Dushara Vijayan) can be in love with someone from a dominant caste (Kalidas Jayaram), then why can’t the polemics of street theatre be absorbed into cinema? In other words, why should cinema always be “naturalistic”? Ranjith has always been a terrific filmmaker (remember the sequence around Anbu’s death in ?), but too often – and perhaps, inevitably – his politics has always been noticed more, praised more. should change that forever. It is his most daring experiment in terms of form.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/natchathiram-nagargirathu/

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