Director: Elan
Cast: Raiza Wilson, Harish Kalyan
Composer / Producer: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Watching a film when one doesn’t really fall within the parenthesized age range is a daunting task. But reviewer profile aside, it’s time romantic comedies found new material instead of peddling age-old tropes of the genre
It’s plain exhausting to call Tamil cinema sexist. Because hey, of the whole wide world, why target poor Kollywood that seems to practically thrive and make merry in the environment? Most instances of sexism in films these days are met with general apathy, at least by this reviewer. There’s just absolutely no use crying ourselves hoarse; the filmmakers are not listening, and the audience that watches – and listens – hoots in appreciation. Pyaar Prema Kaadhal, yet another film that chooses to categorise itself as a romantic comedy, valiantly tries to steer clear of such tropes at first. The lead couple bickers over making dinner like any other, the woman is allowed hangry [hungry + angry, according to Urban Dictionary] outbursts – all without judgment and insinuations – and is also armed with fitting retorts to questions that impugn her character.
Director Elan writes a woman who seems to know her mind and is more liberal than the average heroine in Tamil cinema. In the same breath though, Elan quickly attributes a parent-less past and an elitist background to ‘support’ his characterisation. Sindhuja’s (Raiza Wilson) father may have well been a part of a Gautham Menon film, and she’s doused in what’s considered upper-class paraphernalia. She has burgers for lunch while the hero (Harish Kalyan as Sree) – who naturally is of a lower social stratum – tucks into upma from a tiffin box. And then, in a glorious display of the director’s interpretation of elitism, she’s shown to indulge in casual sex. Of course, he swiftly supports her sexual agency with a few pertinent questions, but that is soon snatched away from her as Elan tars the landscape in benevolent sexism and distinct echoes of morality. The hero tries to convince her to marry him because his mother is sick, her father transitions from liberal to regressive liberal, and the whole universe of PPK conspires, ably abetted by Yuvan Shankar Raja’s soundscape, to make her relent.
There’s an overwhelming feeling of being at sea when watching Pyaar Prema Kaadhal, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s debut production. It earnestly wants to appeal to the youth; the clapping, hooting young people in the audience who perhaps belong in the film’s canvas as well. Tiny hearts pop all over the title card and credits and even punctuate the leads’ names, and the vital tool to modern romance – technology – duly makes an appearance. Dialogues are replaced with chat windows and texts, and in a bid to showcase progressive ideals, there’s some indiscriminate sex. Munishkanth as the bumbling fool has some jokes handy, but the contemporary setting doesn’t quite cloak the film’s internalised chauvinism – the men play victim, and the women – they are all heartless whores in lovely clothes who value their dreams a little more than their boyfriends.
Recommended
To the director’s credit though, he does subvert a few gender tropes and the characters evolve on screen – in thought and in action; none of them remain the same at the end of the film. Sree is forced to re-evaluate his notions of chastity and relationships, and his mother, who is shown to hold conservative beliefs in the opening scene, gradually embraces the turns of the new millennium. But the lead girl traipses the same old path charted for headstrong, outspoken and liberal heroines in Tamil cinema; she achieves her dreams alright, but after a talking-to from her now apologist father, she dreams of the happily-ever-after. Unsurprisingly, and much to our chagrin, that’s really what the young things in the audience seem to notice – and appreciate.
*****
The Pyaar Prema Kaadhal review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.