Thangalaan Movie Synopsis: When a landlord grabs his land through deceit, a tribesman decides to accompany a British explorer in search of gold to the Kolar region that is believed to be guarded by a spirit warrior. Will his hopes of uplifting the lives of his entire tribe succeed?
Thangalaan Movie Review: With Thangalaan, Pa Ranjith crafts a stunning spectacle on human greed, societal oppression, and self-assertion. The film often feels like a psychedelic trip through pages of history, and Ranjith, through the story of Thangalaan (a fantastic Vikram, who delivers a beast of a performance that is full of fury and fear), takes us from the 18th century onwards all the way back to 5 BCE.
When Thangalaan begins, we are introduced to the simple 18th century life of its titular character, who is one of the very few land-owning members in his community. Most of them are already bonded labours to a landlord, who has managed to deprive them of their land through crooked means. And soon, Thangalaan, too, falls a victim to his wily ways.
But he sees a way out when Clement, a British explorer, seeks help from the community to get gold from a region believed to be haunted. Thangalaan, who has already heard of his forefather's vain attempt at getting gold from the region, decides to accompany Clement, hoping that discovering gold might help him earn money to win back his land and even empower his people. Can he succeed in his mission, especially when it's not just the unforgiving landscape that's standing in the way.
The term visionary is so casually tossed around these days, but with Thangalaan, Pa Ranjith can stake a valid claim to it. The film is a true-blue big-screen experience that immerses us into its world and keeps us glued with arresting visuals and intense drama. Not since Aayirathil Oruvan have we seen such go-for-broke filmmaking where we are left in a trance by the visuals even if the narrative doesn't make complete sense. Interestingly, GV Prakash Kumar, who was the composer of that film is also behind this one's music, and he comes up with a score that's grand even if it's a little loud at times. It also doesn't help that the dialogues aren't clear in some places; this is a film that would have benefitted from having subtitles.
But the four to five setpieces, like the flashback involving Thangalaan's forefather, and an extended stretch that involves a perilous crossing of a river that is followed by a battle with a black panther and culminates with a guerilla attack where chaos reigns, that are truly world-class in the way they have been conceived. The visual effects of the creatures, though, are a sore point.
Much of the film unfolds like a horror movie, with the horror coming in many forms - mythical, personal and social. And in between these, we get brief moments of tenderness that capture the simple lives of Thangalaan and his people. Ranjith does a great job capturing the intimacy between Thangalaan and his wife Gangamma (Parvathy Thiruvothu, who adds more to the role with her performance even if the way it's written falls short), and the psychic connection of sorts between his protagonist and Aarathi (Malavika Mohanan, who looks every inch a warrior woman), the fierce guardian angel who has been protecting the land of gold.
Even without the social aspect, the film would have been an engrossing adventure, but it's this element that elevates the film into something truly special. Though the oppressor characters (especially the Brahmin interpreter, who works for the British) come across as somewhat caricaturish, Ranjith shows how "varna sadhi" has managed to deprive a few communities of what's rightfully theirs. Early on, we see Genguvan (Pasupathy, another actor who fixes the writing shortfalls with his sheer presence), one of Thangalaan's community members, urging them to follow in the footsteps of Ramanujar and wear the poonal, so that they will no longer be discriminated, only to later realise that just the mere prop might not be enough to 'uplift' an oppressed person.
The director doesn't spare the British as well. Even if Clement promises better things for the people who agree to work in his mine, we later see how greed turns him into just another version of an oppressor.
The magical realism in the final act does make us wonder how much of what's unfolding is happening inside Thangalaan's head, but Ranjith's refusal to spell it out is what makes the film singular. And while history may have played out otherwise when it came to deciding the fate of the workers who worked in the Kolar gold fields, the director's revisionist take doesn't come across as fanciful, but only as an effort at self-assertion.
