"NAAN KADAVUL"
The tag line of the movie is 'Aham Brahmasmi'.The film is based on the Tamil novel 'Yelavathu Ulagam'(meaning Seventh World) by writer Jayamohan. He also penned the dialogs for the film.The movie received rave reviews and critical acclaim, winning two National Film Awards, including the Best Director Award for Bala, and three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
The film opens with a father in search of his son who he had abandoned 15 years back in Kasi, as per the advice of all astrologers, who predicted that "he was a bad omen". Now the father in remorse finds his son who has become an Aghori ascetic sanyasi Rudran with no human emotions and calls himself as God next to Kalabhirav and always mutters- Bham, Bham Mahadev.People believe that aghori's can give salvation from this birth and Iiberation from rebirth!Rudra leaves his house and takes up residence among sadhus on a hilltop shrine, where physically challenged people are forced to beg by a syndicate run by the devilish Thandavan (Rajendran). The boss of beggars is concerned only about the money collected by his group of supplicants, who he controls, violates and disfigures as he chooses. Because none is able to give any reply to the violence he unleashes on those under his authority.But when Thandavan tries to sell off a blind beggar girl to a disfigured leper, who wants someone to bed him without knowing how ugly he is, their worlds collide. The blind girl comes begging to the aghori for help.Hamsavalli was heavily beaten and disfigured by Thandavan.Rudra saves them by killing Thandavan.Hamsavalli pleads him to relieve from her misery. Rudran who sees only his job as giving 'nirvana' or salvation to those who don't want any more rebirths executes her cutting her throat and provides her salvation. The movie portrays the dark side of the needy physically challenged people.
Bala,the director of the movie showed us the dark realities happening around us, which we had never bothered.
Naan Kadavul is a tale of two extreme groups belonging to the same dark world,where the beggars are depicted as slave workers, Aghoris consider themselves to be super natural - next only to 'Kal Bhairav'.
Naan Kadavul believes that there is No God in the Seventh World. Bala has emphasized this belief throughout the tour in the form of various scenes and dialogs with a tinge of dark humor. A lot of the explicit content has been censored. Jesus and Buddha were supposed to be present as spectators in the scenes where the beggars get beaten up by Rudran & Co. The Gods of the world were supposed to be present when Hamsavalli begs Rudran for death. The objective was to take a dig at ALL religions. To stress the point further, the physically disabled beggars were in the costumes of Lord Sivan, Parvathi and Murugan. This is a subtle way of saying that the gods of the world that we are in, are nothing more than handicapped helpless people in the seventh world. This is brilliant character sketching and symbolism from Bala. The beggars who never go inside the temple, however, consider the 'Mangandi Saami', who is a beggar himself, as their God. Another way of saying that if there is any God in the seventh world, he has to be a beggar too. The character of Hamasavali is sketched in a way to convey that in the dark world, even the people who initially believe in god would eventually be forced by their situation to give up their belief. She surrenders to a nun and gets converted to Christianity but eventually Thandavan manages to buy her. This puts her in a miserable situation and she loses her faith in god and believes that only Rudran can relieve her from this world of misery. She conveys this to Rudran when she gets to meet him and her belief (or the lack of it) is conveyed to us by the dialog where she accuses that no god cared for her miseries.
The movie was much better than the novel. He has shown the lives of helpless beggars and Aghoris very close to reality. He cast the film with 40-50 real life physically handicapped beggars. Arya who portrayed Rudran and Pooja who performed as Hamsavalli gave mind blowing performances. Bala picturised both the parallel tracks that of rudran and beggar mafia beautifully but struggled between the inter linking of the two and lost balance between the tracks.
Jayamohan,the writer of the novel himself admitted,'My novel is simple, but the director has brought in a lovely grandeur in the film,'.
Bala wanted to clear the general misconception that the beggars have a soft corner for people who give alms to them. Beyond a point, they are not concerned much about the money as it doesn't make their sufferings any less and as shown in various sequences, they derive their humor by mocking at the people who visit the temple. The characters dressed like gods, mocking and laughing loud at the people visiting the temple is symbolic to Gods mocking at their superstitious beliefs.
It doesn't preach atheism nor does it say that it is better to die than to lead a miserable life. It leaves the judgmental part to its audience.
