Sairat — Raw passion in a refreshing narrative

I love stories that bring the culture and nativity out in its raw form. This is also the reason why I like Tamil, Malayalam and Iranian films more because you can learn the culture of the place through a film. Films have such power. I have become a fan of Marati cinema after watching ‘Court’ and have been wanting to see Sairat for a long time. After all, this is a film that made 110 crores and is the highest grossing Marati film of all time made in a shoe string budget of 4 crores. I was surfing through Netflix this evening and saw this movie listing. No surprises there that I ended up watching the film and here I am writing a review for this impressive film which was released in early 2016.

There is nothing new in the story — a lower caste poor boy falls in love with a rich upper caste girl. When their love affair is witnessed by the girl’s father, they face lot of pressure. The couple elope from home and after crossing several hurdles, they end up creating a life far away in Hyderabad. The girl’s family comes to meet the couple with gifts for the new born kid and what happens is revealed in an unusual climax. The film honestly portrays the caste evils and the hatred against ‘love’ that plaque the Indian society even in this era of globalization and AI technologies.

To be honest, this story and the entire screen play is nothing new as I have seen this in countless Tamil films. Even the real characters, the rural setting and the turn of events ( I could guess the climax) is nothing new for someone who has grown up watching Tamil films.

What was unique in this film is that there is no pretense and there is complete authenticity which is so refreshing. There is a raw passion that comes so naturally into the film, ultra natural performances from the lead actors and a never seen before world where the film travels with the characters. The cricket tournament with commentary, the coastal Maharashtra, the female lead driving tractors and bullet, the rural well where the youngsters take bath, the college setting and later, the tough slum conditions in Hyderabad brings a whole new world to you. I love watching swarms of birds and in the film, they show swarms of birds from the start till the end. Initially, I couldn’t relate to why the director was showing them. As the story travels from the wide, open and natural spaces in the village to the claustrophobic slum settings in Hyderabad, the audience will definitely feel for the characters who become caged birds as a result of the circumstances.

The caste domination and their arrogance was brilliantly portrayed in the scene where the brother of the female lead slaps his class teacher when the teacher asks him to switch off his phone in the class. The helpless class teacher hangs his head in shame in front of his students. In the evening, the father calls the teachers home and tells them to be careful. There were no over reactions, no loud music and no punch dialogues. The intensity is created by the raw acting and the limited dialogues. I was watching the subtitles to understand the film but I was not stopped anywhere because of the language.

The narrative is so smooth that you don’t feel like watching a film but rather you immerse yourself into the world. The female lead, Rinku Rajguru as Archi, was brilliant and the male lead, Akash Thosar along with the two supporting characters, Balya and Salya, were so real. The female character was created with so much courage and strength that reflects the real rural women in Indian villages. It is also a slap to the superstar movies where women are shown like glamour dolls with no strength. The music was delightful and the songs were soulful. The pace was so beautifully set by the editing team and the cinematographer captures the characters and the contexts in all its rawness.

Full credits to the director Nagraj Manjule for making such a real and lively film. For young lovers, the film could do two things. Either they will realize early enough that the trade-offs in life’s comforts are not worth it and settle for the brain’s choice or use the passion to move out of their comfort zones fully aware of the consequences to live with the heart’s choice. Either way, it is not easy.

Films are great opportunities to showcase the real culture and people. Hindi films, most of the time, deprive their large audience by restricting their stories to urban and overseas settings. On the contrary, regional films bring out the culture, the people, the contexts and the native stories through films like Subramaniapuram, Visaranai, Court, Premam and Sairat. Marati films bring in an authenticity that I have not seen in any other films. I hope these films get the reach they deserve and I have to thank Netflix for including such films in their database.

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Viji (விஜி)

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Writer, எழுத்தாளன்

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