‘Nandhan’ movie review: Sasikumar’s anti-caste film is high-hearted, but lacks subtlety and finesse

You don’t often see a film where its first shot is one of its best! Era Saravanan’s Nandhan, starring Sasikumar, starts with a group of upper-caste men discussing the selection process for a new temple head within their stratum, without considering a fair election with contestants from other communities. But Saravanan does not show us these people and instead focuses on their slippers left outside the temple premises where the temple’s current inhabitants expect the marginalised people to stand. As each person shares his opinion before another person weighs in — laced with an unhealthy dose of caste pride — the camera hovers from one pair of slippers to another.

Interestingly, Saravanan also ends his film with a shot of a slipper, to probably signify what the perpetrators who commit heinous transgression in the name of caste-based social exclusion deserve. Unfortunately, such quality scenes are few and far between, making Nandhan a mediocre outing.

In Nandhan, Sasikumar plays Ambethkumar a.k.a Koozh Paana — a simpleton cut from the same cloth as Chappani from 16 Vayathinile — working at the residence of Koppulingam (Balaji Sakthivel), an upper-caste politician enjoying the perks of his community’s command over the village and his power as the panchayat president. Trouble brews in Koppulingam’s fool-proof run when his panchayat is classified as a reserved panchayat for SCs. The ex-president, realising he has no other way to secure the position and the power that comes from it, makes his minion Koozh Paana take up the position. Unsurprisingly, Ambethkumar’s dreams of doing good for his community go for a toss when he learns he’s just got to be a puppet in the hands of Koppulingam, who insinuates insults at the new president for his ego drive.

Nandhan might remind you of several recent Tamil films centred around grassroots-level politics. While Maamannan might be the most obvious film to compare it with, Nandhan also feelsquite similar to Seththumaan director Thamizh’s Election, which came out early this year (the Vijay Kumar-starrer even featured a voiceover by Sasikumar). Both films have a lot of heart, but suffer from the same shallow writing and amateurish making.

Saravanan opens his film with a slide challenging those who might snide that such incidents of caste oppression and arrogant displays of power dynamics don’t happen in today’s India. Not only does he dare to disagree with it, but he also ends the film with real-life Dalit panchayat presidents lamenting on how their work gets hindered and their positions not being taken seriously. More than wanting to dish out an entertaining movie, Saravanan and Sasikumar have wanted to document something unfortunately still prevalent, and in that venture, they have certainly succeeded. But whether the film does justice to its core idea — something that needs to be immediately addressed by those in power — is a different question.

Inarguably, the biggest issue with Nandhan is its ‘in-your-face’ perspective. Ironically, this slant of the film also gives some of its most honest and realistic moments, especially when Saravanan takes a dig at contemporary politicians. But the lack of subtlety, which seems to be a product of improper translation from prose to picture, kills the immersive experience the film strives to achieve. An establishing shot of Koppulingam’s bed-ridden father (GM Kumar) starts with a cobweb-covered walking stick. A piece of stem which Ambethkumar’s son buries in haste, grows to be a plant as a metaphor for how people and their ideologies aren’t buried but sown. Do you get the gist?

A still from ‘Nandhan’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

There’s a shot of a youngster being scolded by elders for playing online rummy, and another one involving Ambethkumar’s wife Selvi (Suruthi Periyasamy), a cashew seller, getting cheated by rich commuters on a highway who make a run for it without paying her for the goods. While they might provide additional context to the quality of living of Ambethkumar’s clan, none of these scenes add any value to the film’s proceedings. Similarly, the torture porn episode at the end of the film’s runtime feels unnecessarily graphic. The film jumps from one scene to another with bumps large enough to slow down the cashew thieves, and the unevenly-done dark make-up of Sasikumar and Suruti is not only artificial, but also reiterates the misconception and stereotypes around the correlation between caste and skin tones.

But Nandhan also has its share of silver linings, such as the scene involving Ambethkumar doing a trial run for an Independence Day flag-hoisting ceremony with a piece of his red towel complete with a salute, which can also be interpreted as Lal Salam. Some of the dialogues from Nandhan not only remind us of the political satires we have had in Tamil cinema but also stand as a testimony to the maker’s gutsy take on contemporary politics; there’s a throwaway line of an upper-caste man saying “Indha puli, siruthai na namakku agadhu” (Lions and panthers aren’t good for us). There’s also a fantastic dialogue on how people used to believe that power and authority are necessary to rule, but the truth is, it’s needed to even live.

The film’s able cast does the majority of the weightlifting. Interestingly, from GM Kumar to Samuthirakani (who appears in an extended cameo) to the protagonist and the antagonist, the film is filled with directors-turned-actors, and they all do a solid job. Sasikumar pulls off a challenging role neatly, and so does Suruthi, while Balaji Sakthivel is also raking up a fascinating filmography as an actor. But despite their performances and a much-needed message at its core, Nandhan succumbs to mediocre writing, resulting in a predictable ending that fails to provide the catharsis the film builds us up to.

Nandhan is currently running in theatres

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