Paava Kadhaigal Netflix Review

Sinful Tales is the English translation of the 2020 Tamil-language story collection drama film Paava Kadhaigal, which is composed of four short films by Sudha Kongara, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Vetrimaaran, and Vignesh Shivan. It was released on 18 December 2020 on Netflix. The movie examines how sin, pride, and honor impact complicated romantic relationships via four different stories. There are four episodes in this season, and each one has a unique plot. A large group cast, including Kalidas Jayaram, Sai Pallavi, Simran, and Anjali, as well as Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, Prakash Raj, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Kalki Koechlin, and others, may be seen in this collection.

The Plot of Four Different Stories

1. Thangam

"Thangam" is a word that signifies "Gold" and is translated as "sona" in Hindi. In a little village near Kovai, the story of Sathar take place in the early 1980s. A Muslim transgender man, Sathar, thinks of himself as a woman. He is in love with their Hindu childhood friend Saravanan, whom he lovingly refers to as "Thangam," and thinks that after undergoing a surgery called sex reassignment, they will be able to get married and reside together as a normal couple. He makes money by waiting in queues at the ration shop for peasants and transporting the goods he bought to their homes. After recently completing his education and securing a highly esteemed bank position, Saravanan returns to the village. Saravanan informs Sathar that he holds feelings for Sahira, Sathar's younger sister.

Sathar puts Saravanan and Sahira together despite being heartbroken and accepting the hard reality. After that, they start dating each other. When word of the blooming love reaches both families, they both reject it because of their differing religious beliefs. Despite Sathar's best efforts to protect Sahira, her abusive father beats her. Sathar offers Saravanan and Sahira the money he had saved for her sex reassignment operation as they plan to escape and marry each other.

The families of Saravanan and Sahira reconcile after one year and extend an invitation to the young couple and their infant son to return home. The reunion with Sathar excites Saravanan and Sahira. They run across Saravanan's maternal uncle on the way home, who fills them in on what happened after they left. The villagers are informed that Sathar's family disowned Sathar and forced him out of the house after he supported the couple in fleeing. Sathar was left without support after Saravanan's father grabbed the villagers' ration cards from Sathar and returned them to the villagers. He gets followed and harassed by the town's thugs because he has been forced to live on the streets.

Sathar returns to his parents for a helping hand out of hopelessness, but his mother won't open the door and instead asks him to die at the hands of the thugs so that her mother can marry off the rest of her sisters and regain the family's honor. Sathar feels bad after hearing this from her mother and readily surrenders to the waiting goons, who treat him severely and kill her. Due to the heartlessness of the entire town and the suffering Sathar faces, Saravanan and Sahira are heartbroken. Despite their repeated requests, they go without even seeing their parents. When Saravanan visits their favorite site on the riverside, he discovers Sathar's belongings, the word "Thangam" carved on the rocks, and weeps for his friend, who has been dead for a while.

2. Love Panna Uttranum

English translation of this second episode's title is "If You Love Something, Set It Free." The daughters of the old-fashioned village lord Veerasimman are twin sisters Aadhilakshmi and Jothilakshmi. While Aadhi lives in the village with her father, Jothi resides in the city. For the sake of his political objective, Veerasimman appears to support inter-caste marriages, but in reality, he holds intense hatred against lower-caste villagers. Aadhilakshmi confesses her love for a driver who belongs to a different caste and works for their family. Foolishly, she believes that her father will change his mind.

Aadhi tells Jothi everything. Veerasimman decides to kill Aadhi and her lover to protect their family's honor at the suggestion of Narikutty. To kill Aadhi, Narikutty sets up a live wire, and she gets brutally electrocuted. Her lover is also murdered in a car accident by her father's thugs, which appears unrelated.

Jothilakshmi arrives in her village with Bharani and Penelope to surprise her sister and notice that nothing has changed in her home. Penelope suspects that something is wrong. Narikutty assaults Bharani after suspecting another inter-caste relationship between Jothi and Bharani. At the same time, they discover that Aadhi is dead. This pushes Penelope to admit that she is a lesbian and in a relationship with Jothi, and Bharani is only their friend.

Veerasimman and Narikutty threaten to kill everyone. Penelope and Bharani receive a death threat at Aadhi's funeral and are compelled to leave without Jothi. Jothi pleads with her father to kill her like he killed Aadhi or let her go and live her life peacefully. Unexpectedly, Veerasimman does not complain and stops Narikutty when Penelope and Bharani arrive to pick up Jothi. Penelope calls Veerasimman and Narikutty while leaving in the car to inform them that Jothi and Bharani are actually in a romantic relationship and that the lesbian relationship was only a fake act to save Bharani. Two Years later, it is revealed that Veerasimman truly had a change of heart and managed to flee his village and its violence against people of different castes. He moved to France with his daughter and learned to rap with Bharani.

a. Vaanmagal

"Vaanmagal" is a word that signifies "Daughter of The Sky."

An intimate middle-class couple, Sathya and Mathi, reside in Madurai with their three children- a son named Bharath, who is enrolled in college; an older daughter, Vaidehi and a 12-year-old daughter, Ponnuthaayi. When Vaidehi reaches puberty, a strict traditional Mathi gives her advice on how to quit acting like a child and start acting like a lady, defend herself, and go forward in life with respect and pride. But one night, after her dance lessons, Ponnuthayi is mistakenly abducted instead of Vaidehi and is sexually assaulted by a group of boys from their neighborhood.

The entire family is devastated by the damage that was done to their little child when she returned home traumatized. Despite the pleading of Bharath and Sathya, Mathi refuses to file a police report because she does not want to make the incident public. As a father, Sathya is powerless and finds it difficult to get along with his everyday life. Ponnuthaayi's sudden disappearance leads her neighbors and relatives to start spreading rumors, and Mathi does her best to keep Ponnuthaayi safe from their watchful eyes. Ponnuthaayi gradually recovers from her wounds, and Sathya reassures her that nothing is wrong with her and encourages her to keep pursuing her goals.

Mathi finds it difficult to deal with the questions and the stories created by society. She temporarily considers pushing Ponnuthaayi off a cliff in order to save herself from the embarrassment, but she gathers herself and is ashamed of her own ideas. She decides to carry herself with pride going forward. Bharath, who is upset, finds the criminal, who is a senior in his own college. He decides to take revenge and, with the support of his companions, manages to abduct the culprit in order to stop him from hurting any other girls.

4. Oor Iravu

English translation of this fourth episode's title is "One Night." As the story begins, a pregnant Sumathi is joyfully reunited with her separated family in her hometown. After she eloped and married Hari, a man from a lower caste, she was cut off from the rest of her family a few years ago. Both Sumathi and Hari have college degrees and are financially independent in Bangalore. When Sumathi's father, Janakiraman, finds out that his granddaughter is expecting a baby, he puts his ill will to one side and goes to meet her in the city. Although initially unwilling to accept his son-in-law, Janakiraman kindly invites the couple to his home in the village for Sumathi's baby shower ceremonies. Sumathi agrees to return to her village and is surprised by her father's sudden change of heart.

At first, everyone is angry towards her because she eloped, but later they become friendly. Everyone in the family visits the reception hall the evening before the baby shower except Sumathi and her parents. Sumathi develops a sudden sickness. It is revealed that Janakiraman poisoned Sumathi's drinking water and has been waiting for both her and her unborn child to pass away. When Sumathi insists on calling the doctor, her father refuses. After a lot of suffering, Sumathi and her baby die because of the poison. Hari arrives after a short period of time and finds Sumathi dead. He appeals to the high court and supreme court against Janakiraman with Sumathi's mother as his supporting witness.

Reviews

The first episode, "Thangam," composed by Sudha Kongara, is based on inter-religious conflict. The relationship between a straight man and a trans man is displayed very beautifully. In order to save Saravanan and Sahira, Sathar sacrifices everything, even his life, by keeping his friend's address a secret.

Thangam is a well-made short film that illustrates the struggles faced by all trans people. The movie, which takes place in the 1980s, shows how the third gender is treated brutally.

Prakash Raj and Sai Pallavi are the lead actors in Oor Iravu short film composed by Vetri Maaran. There are scenes of a father reconnecting with his pregnant, separated daughter Sumathi, who has settled in Bangalore, and scenes in the father's home in the village, where preparations are being made for her bridal shower. From the moment the father refuses even to drink the glass of water offered by Hari, his son-in-law, who belongs to a different caste, viewers are suspicious of the father's motivations. The father appears to be struggling with himself. However, despite the story following a predictable path, Vetri Maaran succeeds in creating tension, making the viewers eagerly await the time when the father reveals his true colors.

Vignesh Shivan composed Love Panna Uttranum, where honor killing takes place. However, the presentation of this story of two sisters, both of whom are portrayed by Anjali, their lovers, and their father, is in the genre of black comedy. The unusual style, which features caricatured villains, hilarious yelling cuss words, and a lesbian romance, does not seem to match the horrifying act that the characters do. Still, the filmmaker makes up for it by making the film entertaining. This short film lacks emotions; the characters trick each other throughout, such as when Jothi and her friends trick her father and his thugs or when Narikutty turns Veerasimman against his own daughters.

Vaan Magal is directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. It is undoubtedly the most complex of the four films, at least conceptually. The role of Sathya is played by Gautham. Sathya is the patriarch of an affluent family consisting of his wife Mathi, son Bharath, a college student, daughter Vaidehi, a teenager, and daughter Ponnuthaayi. It deals with the abuse of a minor and explores how women are brainwashed from a young age that a family's honor depends on the body of its women. In this short video, the concept of honor is presented through the eyes of a traditional housewife who continues to hold beliefs and traditions such as "If you are having your period, you must stay in one place. Don't roam around or touch anything, or I'll have to clean it all." There comes the point where Mathi pushes Ponnuthaayi off the hill, and the viewers are shocked by this act, questioning, "Did she really do it?"

Four enthusiastic directors from the Tamil cinema industry have directed this most recent collection on the misdeeds committed for the sake of family honor. It is a real and often brutal discussion work. The four films examine what defines honor and how a woman's body bears the burden of being the family's honor. At the same time, she is denied personal freedom, and the family's elders are under pressure to make disgusting decisions.

It is disturbing, heartbreaking, lively, and occasionally even sadly funny. Surprisingly, the two short films that left you feeling somewhat disappointed were the ones that had a hopeful ending. It could be because the only incidents in the news that we have heard or read about included young people who chose to break unfair social rules, and things did not turn out well for them.

You cannot help but wonder how much injustice is experienced by women, who are always on the receiving end of abuse, whether it takes the shape of caste-based violence, sexual assault, or honor killings. The animated anthology's title sequence, which uses the color red as a symbol to show the several stages of a woman's life, further emphasizes the fact that women, regardless of their caste or religion, are mostly the victims of the crimes shown in Paava Kadhaigal.