Good day everybody, wherever you are.
The Tamil movie bearing the title, Sarpatta Parambarai by director Pa. Ranjith.
This is a boxing-oriented movie starring Arya, Pasupathy, Anupama, John Vijay, Thushara,
Sanchana, Kalaiarasan, John Kokken, Shabeer, and a host of others. I had
to look up their names since I am not familiar with all their names.
So what is the plotline? It is about an underdog who is overzealous about making a career in
boxing, and when put to test, he is fighting all the way, seeing both victory and defeat,
pain and sorrow, deceit and betrayal which leads him to the lowest point in life, with a mother
who stands against his zeal and zest to make his mark in life as a boxing champ.
The screenplay depicts the thrill of victory, agony of defeat, the trials and tribulation of
human drama projecting the different dimensions of the human relationships between a mother and son,
husband and wife, a boxing coach and his loyal student, the arch-rivals from two opposing camps,
all laid out very well in the backdrop of politics back in 1975.
The human foibles of love, hate,
jealousy, betrayal, selfishness, and greed, with the dark side of gang conflicts
and violence in the milieu of rustic slum life in north Chennai in the mid-seventies,
is well captured to present this boxing flick on-screen spanning little over two and half hours.
Did the movie live up to expectations?
Yes, it did, especially with a star cast, each giving nothing but their best.
The characters of this movie seem so well etched out, and the actors who play their respective/ v
roles have given their all-time best. Be it Pasupathy who plays the dignified character of a
boxing coach, or John Vijay who plays an Anglo-Indian neighbor, well-wisher of the
protagonist of the movie namely Arya or
Anupama Kumar who plays the widowed mother of the protagonist,
a woman who loses her husband to gang rivalry in boxing during her prime, mistakenly
attributing her misfortune to the sport itself and therefore forbids her son from pursuing boxing.
or The protagonist
of the movie, Arya himself playing the tormented son torn between his undying passion for boxing
and his exceeding love and respect for his widowed mother.
or Kalayarasan the son of the boxing coach Pasupathy,
misconstruing his father’s impartial judgment based on the pure merits of his students,
who in turn decides to go against his father. or
Thushara who plays the young wife of the protagonist Arya,
They all have given nothing but their best.
Without a doubt, it is hard to imagine Thushara is a newcomer, and her performance is totally
beyond belief. Her character is so well etched out, and she delivers nothing but the best.
There is no one who could not fall in love with this character and how it was delivered on screen.
Sanchana plays Kalayarasan’s young wife,
though there is little scope for acting, she does her part so well too.
Both John Kokken
playing Arya’s opponent in the ring, and Shabeer who plays the role of dancing Rose,
without a doubt, have gone above and beyond giving life to their respective characters on screen.
Kudos to both of them. Especially, dancing Rose, is a memorable character with an incredible
performance. The amount of hard work and effort these male actors have put in
to physically transform to get into the skin of the characters totally overwhelms the viewers.
The movie seems to have some political overtones, and director Ranjith seems to bring his own
personal feelings about the Dalit caste and consumption of beef, etc, as I understand.
I will refrain from commenting on that. But overall, what do I think about this movie?
For someone who has never been to India, yet is so familiar with the Tamil culture
and language, I would say the movie is well made. Great screenplay, outstanding performance
by the entire star cast, and the director’s impeccable ability to take us all back to
the mid-seventies on screen make this movie completely watchable.