karnan movie review in english

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Karnan Movie Review : Karnan is a powerful tale of defiance against oppression

• Times Of India

In-depth Analysis

Our overall critic’s rating is not an average of the sub scores below.

Karnan - Official Teaser

Karnan​​ | Song - Pandarathi Puranam (Lyrical...

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Karnan​​ | Song - Thattaan Thattaan (Lyrical)

Karnan​​ | Song - Kandaa Vara Sollunga (Lyric...

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Karnan​​ | Song - Manjanathi Puranam

Karnan​​ | Song - Kandaa Vara Sollunga

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Ramaswamy Javahar 608 days ago

Karnan, a Tamil movie enacted by the leading actor of Tamil film industry named Dhanush. The movie is directed by Mari Selvaraj who is well known for his debut movie Pariyerum Perumal award winning movie. The plot of this movie encircles a village which is denied a bus stop. The plight of the villagers without transportation is highlighted throughout the movie. Themes include casteism, capitalism, imperialism, and so on. A nearby village serves as the bus stop for this village. Natives of that village create mess while they go to get their bus. Quarrels and conflicts between these two villagers can be witnessed in several frames. They are dominant since they have transportation and also they are considered high because of their caste. Among the two villages each village has major a caste division. Though script and writing speaks, music and cinematography adds more colour and flavour to it. A typical folklore is handled by Santosh Narayanan, the music director of the movie. Especially the song named “Kanda Vara Sollunga” became popular only because of the usage of the native instruments. The whole movie smelled the soil’s essence. The credits for this can be shared with art director too. Usage of tiny creatures should be spoken because it is handled well. Even a butterfly speaks the plight of the villagers in a police station scene. Characterization and artists chosen worked well since they made justice for it. The mask used for the character Pechi made the audience little frightened which says the toil of the art director. On the whole, Karnan movie can be called as a team work and it is a cult for that.

hari 617 days ago

Raghu6300386775 raghu 113 793 days ago.

Strongly Thought Provoking And Hard-Hitting Village Drama.

mohammedifham 869 days ago

Next National award My thala dhanush

rogerusa 869 days ago

Thanks to Mari Selvaraj sir / Actor Dhanush and all the Team Members

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My streaming gem: why you should watch Karnan

The latest in our series of writers highlighting overlooked gems is a recommendation for a rousing Tamil melodrama

M any of the Indian releases that pivoted to streaming over the past 18 months have deserved burial-by-algorithm, if I’m being honest. One that doesn’t is the Tamil melodrama Karnan, an exceptionally vivid spot of latter-day myth-making. You wonder whether writer-director Mari Selvaraj pitched it as “what if Baahubali” – the two-part SS Rajamouli epic that redrew the horizons of Indian commercial cinema back in 2015 – “but in the here-and-now?”. Enter our eponymous young hero (local megastar Dhanush), introduced completing a ritual that involves leaping off a rock overhanging a pool and, while still in mid-air, bisecting vermillion-daubed fish with a flashing blade. Lakes, swords: British viewers may be reminded of Camelot. Here’s another knight in search of a worthy cause.

Yet the surprise Selvaraj has for us – one of the biggest curveballs in any movie released this past year – is that this cause should be a fully integrated public transit system. This is a tale of two villages, one of which (Karnan’s native Podiyankulam) is dirt-poor, the other (neighbouring Melur) rich enough to afford its own bus stop. When the residents of Podiyankulam hike to Melur to catch the bus, they’re regarded with suspicion and sometimes outright contempt as outsiders taking up valuable space – a source of ongoing tension between the two communities. Selvaraj has taken us somewhere very specific to tell a story that is broadly universal: a story about tribalism, and how it’s now often tied up with issues of free movement.

The film’s first half, however, serves chiefly to define its warrior-in-chief – and thus to demonstrate that appearances can prove deceptive. Karnan initially presents as a nice lad with sensible hair, ticking the first box of Indian movie heroism by being good to his put-upon mother (Janaki). Yet the characterisation is soon complicated. A drinker and a gambler, Karnan is less your typical masala maverick than a punk-in-waiting. He’s a hothead who spends this first hour getting into scraps, pushing away the one gal who’s crazy about him, and – in a pre-intermission sequence that must have been tremendous fun to shoot – single-handedly trashing one of those rackety old buses pootling between backwaters. (He does much the same to a police station just after the break.)

This is a kid with fire in his belly – that’s what makes him such a hothead – yet while Selvaraj grasps these flames can be destructive, he also knows that in certain cases they’re exactly what’s required to effectuate real and lasting change. Sometimes, the movie posits, you have to burn down the whole rotten system and start again from scratch. The blazingly unpredictable hero is one reason Karnan emerges as such an unpredictable watch – it’s a morality play hitched to a genuine loose cannon. In the course of the film, Karnan will alienate family members and the wider village; at points, all we can cling to is the knowledge our boy seems unlikely ever to take the shit the penniless farmers around him have been forced to swallow for generations.

Somewhere in the mix, there’s a standard-issue crowdpleaser: you glimpse it whenever Dhanush raises himself up to his full 5ft 5in (5ft 4½in, when wet) and sets about righting this world’s wrongs – wealth inequality, police brutality – to what you suspect would have been huge cheers from the cheap seats had the film’s theatrical run not been curtailed by Covid. But it’s been overlaid by an artistry and delicacy rarely observed in films of this scale: if not the full Rajamouli, then not a hundred miles away. Cinematographer Theni Eswar provides lustrous cutaways to the region’s flora and fauna. And his overhead shots are positively sculptural: men gathering in a field mowed to resemble a bull, lovers trysting by a heart-shaped pond.

The world-building is elevated to the point where it begins to resemble cosmology, yet as we look upon this busy, tempestuous, hotly contested few acres of land, we realise it’s not so far removed from our own backyards. It could do with more lady in its lake, true: where the Baahubalis offered equal-opportunity mythos, the women here fall between spectators and damsels-in-distress. (It’s a Dhanush film, and some hierarchies may be harder to topple than others.) Yet Selvaraj makes enough genuinely bold, even radical choices elsewhere, not least amid the tense siege finale, to make one regret that Karnan got shuttled off to streaming mid-pandemic. This is a film that takes up a small, everyday struggle, then rides hell-for-leather to fill the screen entire with it.

Karnan is available on Amazon Prime in the US and UK

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Karnan Review: Dhanush Stars In Action Film That Is More Than Just Fists And Lung Power

Karnan review: dhanush plunges headlong into the role of a hot-headed young man at odds with the world and surfaces with a sterling performance that ebbs and peaks with the rhythms of the narrative..

Karnan : Dhanush in a still from the film. (courtesy: dhanushkraja )

Cast: Dhanush, Lal, Rajisha Vijayan, Yogi Babu, Nataraja Subramanian, Gouri Kishan, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, G.M. Kumar

Director: Mari Selvaraj

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Mari Selvaraj has done it again. Not that we weren't expecting it. In his powerful 2018 debut film Pariyerum Perumal , the writer-director had banked upon a steady flow of kinetic energy and loaded verbal exchanges to tell the story of a man determined to break free from caste discrimination. The film deservedly earned him admirers overnight. In Karnan , working with a crowd-pulling star (Dhanush) cast as an irrepressible rebel driven by rage against power-crazed tormentors, Selvaraj does not abandon his basic strengths, which clearly stem from a strong social consciousness born out of experience, while providing an even more breathtaking demonstration of his rapier-sharp cinematic acumen.

The story isn't out of the ordinary. In fact, one might be inclined to describe Karnan as just another big-screen rendition of a battle between those who have nothing to lose and those who are determined not to part with their power to oppress, exploit, grab, pillage and burn. What will stop you from going any further with that inference is the sure-handed manner in which Selvaraj orchestrates the key tools at his disposal.

Aided by cinematographer Theni Eswar, whose canvas is varied and methods unhindered by spatial restrictions, and music composer Santhosh Narayanan, whose songs are stirring, Selvaraj attains the sort of synthesis of action, words, background score and, most important, visual flamboyance that instantly elevates a film to a distinctly higher plane.

If Pariyerum Perumal was about a youngster fighting to assert his identity in the face of continued indignities, Karnan centres on a dispossessed village standing up for its right to basic human dignity. The canvas is wider, the treatment of the theme of rebellion against exploitation is more elaborate, and the socio-political commentary is invested with greater buoyancy.

Dhanush plunges headlong into the role of a hot-headed young man at odds with the world and surfaces with a sterling performance that ebbs and peaks in perfect consonance with the rhythms of the narrative. He combines a warm ruggedness with a devilish swagger to conjure up a figure whose invincibility is indicated not by means of any overt manifestations of physical might but through a firm, unwavering resolve to put an end to the history of humiliation that his village has been subjected to.

The titular hero sports a T-shirt with Rajinikanth's face on it. In a later scene, his sweetheart (Rajisha Vijayan, in her first Tamil film), dons the same top. But by no stretch of the imagination is Karnan an invincible Thalapathi-like dynamo, irrespective of how grandiose his entry earlier in the film has been. He is in essence an Everyman Hero blessed with the dogged determination not to accept his lot in life.

Repeatedly stabbed by the realization that his people have for too long been receiving the rough end of the stick from those that wield power, social and political, he turns on the oppressors with the force of a tornado. The bristling young man takes up cudgels (actually improvised weapons and machetes before a sword is unsheathed in the climax) despite knowing the risks involved. It is a winner-takes-all war, so the one who has nothing stands to gain the most provided he is the last man standing.

The marginalization of Karnan's village is denoted by the absence of a bus stop. When the villagers want to board a public transport vehicle, they wave feverishly at the driver hoping to catch his attention. But instead of halting, the buses invariably gather speed and race away, leaving the forsaken to their own devices. So, when the village boys have to get to a CRPF recruitment test that might change their lives, their only mode of transport is a tractor.

This might seem like a mundane issue, but when it is coupled with decades of institutionalized neglect and violence, it reflects the existence of a deliberate, well thought-out strategy to keep these people cut off and underserved. The neighbouring upper caste village, the police force and the administration are all complicit in the conspiracy.

Karnan is a guy seething with rage and with good reason. A few of the battles that he fights - he is, of course, meant to recall the Mahabharata's quintessential outcast, Karna - are personal in nature and scope, but the big, important one that he must wage has a larger, even mythical, context, which Selvaraj establishes from the word go.

The opening sequence of Karnan reveals an epileptic girl frothing at the mouth and lying prostrate on a busy road. Cars and buses drive past her in both directions without stopping, as if she were a speck of dust. Life ebbs out of her. The camera pulls away skywards, giving the audience a top-down view of the helpless body. The girl acquires the visage of a goddess - this is exactly how the myths of oppressed people evolve as a means of both recompense and assertion - and begins to watch over the village as an involved observer.

The repeated appearance of the goddess lends the film a surreal quality and takes it beyond the parameters of a conventional downtrodden-pitted-against-persecutors construct. The Pariyerum Perumal dog, Karuppi, takes the form of a black horse in Karnan. That apart, a donkey with its forelegs tied limps around as the men and women go about their lives - the animal is metaphor for the people of the village at large. It is crying out to be liberated from its bondage so that it can run free.

From the mythic to the political, Selvaraj makes the back-and-forth transitions with immense confidence and flair. When no bus halts at the village to give a pregnant woman a ride, an angry Karnan leads a violent act, which, in turn, provokes an instant reprisal by the police, led by IPS officer Kannapiran (Natarajan "Natty" Subramaniam, known to Hindi movie audiences as the DP of Black Friday and Jab We Met ).

Selvaraj's eye for detail asserts itself everywhere. On the walls of a police station are framed portraits of historical personages from public and cultural life, but the personality who has special attention directed towards him is Babasaheb Ambedkar. In the melee, something strikes the side of the icon's portrait. It sways a bit, seems to be in danger of being knocked off the wall, but steadies itself as if conveying an acknowledgement, even an endorsement, of the emphatic awakening of the villagers.

Promoted Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

In the process of giving Karnan a firm anchor, Dhanush receives noteworthy support from Lal in the role of a feisty elderly villager and Natty as a man in uniform who doubles up as the hero's principal adversary.

Karnan is a veritable tour de force, an action film that isn't just fists and lung power, but also a lot of heart. It is another affirmation of Mari Selvaraj's grasp on the medium.

Dhanush, Lal, Rajisha Vijayan, Yogi Babu, Nataraja Subramanian, Gouri Kishan, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, G.M. Kumar

Mari Selvaraj

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Karnan Reviews

Despite some faults which seem to be inherent in the local movie industry, “Karnan” is a true epic movie that also manages to highlight the issues the lower castes face in the country, through an approach that aims firstly towards entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 7 | Dec 26, 2022

What a monster of a film! KARNAN is a modern masterpiece that simply blows your mind with the handling of its themes, its images and sounds.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Apr 7, 2022

'Karnan' movie review: Mari Selvaraj’s dance of defiance makes for glorious cinema

Where does one begin with Mari Selvaraj’s superlative Karnan? Let’s start perhaps by getting the obvious out of the way: the comparisons with the Karnan from mythology.

There’s the constant suggestion that Dhanush’s Karnan has all the makings of a great leader selflessness, benevolence, courage, and the willingness to stand up for the innocent. If Kunti cast away Karnan in Mahabharata, Mari’s Karnan is caste away.

He shares with the mythological hero the yearning for equality and respect. The community of Podiyankulam (named, I suppose, after Kodiyankulam, which suffered a police rampage in 1995), needs a dynamic figure, even if it doesn’t realise it, and from the beginning of Karnan, there’s the indication that the protagonist is a warrior, a saviour.

Barely minutes after you get introduced to him, an old woman glares at a bird of prey and warns, “Un rekkaya odaikka oruthan varuvaan.”

Shortly, we see the son of the Sun here, the son of the soil being carried on the shoulders of elated Podiyankulam’s citizens, as he holds a sword aloft to the sun.

Unlike in Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathy (a poster of which Karnan flaunts on his tee) which too was an interpretation of Karna Mari’s Karnan doesn’t rely on visual homages to the sun, save for the rare silhouette shot; the sunny village of Podiyankulam is reminder enough.

While Kunti’s Karnan had to make the choice between staying loyal to the Kauravas and taking over the Pandavas, Mari’s Karnan has to choose between fighting for his village and joining the enemy ranks, in a sense.

While the film makes it clear that a villain is every person even those with fleeting appearances (like Azhagam Perumal) who considers another person to be beneath him, the most vicious among them is a police officer played by Natty, whose subtlety accentuates his menace.

The character’s name, Kannabiran, leaves you with little doubt on the mythological character considered to be god who is being referenced, and in a sense, criticised.

The Podiyankulam community seems to show a love for harmonious living. The film is full of animals: cats, dogs, goats, roosters, cows… A butterfly falling is a sign (Santhosh Narayanan’s beautiful Utradheenga Yappo asks, “Oor ulagam suththam povurom; enga rekkai yenga kelunga”).

A man riding an elephant is a signifier of respect. A horse—and its young rider—feature in a heroic scene towards the end of the film. Perhaps the most relevant of them all to this film, the donkey that meek animal of labour—gets freed by Karnan. Haunting this film are visuals of those girls bearing the symbolic head of a guardian deity. Each time, Karnan shows spunk, these angels rise.

They even dance about, when, finally, war seems inevitable. There can be no peace when the real authorities, police officers tasked with the role of being guardians, turn out to be agents of oppression instead. ‘Utraadheenga Yappo’ calls them ‘thoppi potta pei’ and warns, ‘kandavana adikka varaan; kanavayellaam posukka varaan’.

That’s why Karnan constantly suggests, even if with some empathy, that docility in such a world is almost cowardice. The violence in this film isn’t simply of the cathartic variety; Mari goes a step further and shows how violence, in such extreme cases of oppression, becomes the only available response even if it can barely match up to the levels that Kannabiraan unleashes.

The clash between the police and the villagers is this film’s rather contained interpretation of the Kurukshetra war. Krishna took on Duryodhana and friends there; here, Kannabiraan takes on pretty much the same names. But crucially, it’s clear who is deserving of our support, and who, of our condemnation.

The film is full of such memorable characters, and this helps stop Karnan from getting burdened as the solo heroic figure, which , in such movements, is often counterproduct ive. His friend and a village elder, Yamarajan (Lal), is a hero too.

Built big and full of exuberance and affection, his strength and his helplessness is never seen more than when he is forced to be a mute observer of torture and slams the wall in frustration.

But his character isn’t just about the physicality; he’s perhaps the emotional core of this film and gets an entire song in which to express his love for his dead wife. It’s also ever a pleasure to see Yogi Babu plays roles that don’t objectify him. Mari, here, goes a step further and even strips the humour label off him.

The result is wonderful. Karnan also has many memorable women. There’s Karnan’s sister (Lakshmi Priya Chandramouli), who is perhaps the only character capable of bringing him in line. There’s his girlfriend, Draupadhai (Rajisha), who, even with the limitations of her character, is given the agency to choose her partner.

Even smaller characters like Karnan’s mother, who communicates a real sense of concern and helplessness at protecting her son, and a passing old woman who Yama steals from, make an impression. And of course, Karnan’s sister, though present in a single scene, haunts the entire film.

If I had some grouse at all, it would be that the women don’t seem to play a stronger part in the war. This means that when they consequently are shown to implore at the feet of Karnan, it seems like the exact behaviour that he often condemns. And yet, for the most part, the heroic moments in this film don’t necessarily feel manufactured for Dhanush’s presence.

There’s a genuine attempt at empowering the other members of the community, who despite having the motivation and strength, simply seem to lack the courage to take the first step.

In fact, for much of the final battle, Karnan is a lonely figure, walking away elsewhere. Just the idea of a star like Dhanush not involved in the final battle for the longest time… that, in itself, is a fascinating choice.

And then, to be able to write in a rousing, organic moment of heroism that’s also visually so gratifying… The real pleasure of Karnan is the film’s love and empathy for a trampled people and their way of life. It presents with such detail their music, devotion, ritual, dance… why, even their gambling.

It’s astonishing what Mari does with this rather contained premise, and how he brings in the emotions and the majesty befitting a premise far vaster in scope and scale.

This loftiness in execution documents the dehumanisation of so many people among and around us, and in a way that is deeply affecting. Karnan is a symbol, not necessarily a real man swinging about a sword on a horse, like the Kalki avatar.

He’s the manifestation of the fury that comes from being stomped on for generations. Even more affectingly, he is the summary of all the frustration and helplessness every oppressed person has ever felt, when attempting to appeal to the humanity of the oppressor.

This is why even when Karnan puts a sword to a malicious man’s neck, he is more frustrated than angry. “Apdi pesaadhayaa!” he screams in tears, almost to the world at large.

In a perfect world, Karnan would be free to pursue a career of his choice and travel where his wings take him. But like the donkey in this film, he can only move so much with his feet tied.

That final dance may seem like joy, but don’t for a minute stop to notice that it is simply a momentary physical release of all the frustration built inside. The flailing about of the arms and the facial contortions feel like defiant pleas for freedom. Karnan is a tearful dance, and with this film, Mari Selvaraj establishes for a second time that he has all the markings of a masterful filmmaker.

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Karnan movie review: Dhanush’s film is a powerful, bold portrait of caste-based riots and police brutality

Karnan movie review: dhanush plays the saviour of his people in mari selvaraj latest film about caste-politicians and the subjugation of marginalised communities..

The violence that permeates the lives of Dalits and the people of marginalised communities is undeniable. The urban society is unaware of the plight of these people who, as shown in the Karnan, have to fight for their rights – right to live, right to education, right to livelihood and better wages. In the Indian social context, there have been many incidents where they have borne the brunt of the government and police's absolute cruelty. Mari Selvaraj’s Karnan, which features Dhanush in one of his fiercest roles, is a bold, powerful portrait of a flawed system letting down its people, caste-based riots and police brutality.

Loosely based on the 1995 caste-riots in Kodiyankulam; Karnan paints an extremely hard-hitting story of a village fighting for its recognition. It is about the people of Podiyankulam who have been oppressed by everyone around them. From the people (upper caste) of the neighbouring village to the local collector and the police department; nobody pays heed to the people of Podiyankulam.

Watch Karnan trailer:

The film opens with a haunting shot of a young girl dying in the middle of a road – as several vehicles pass by without ever stopping to help. Following this incident, the people of the village meet several concerned authorities and request for the construction of a bus stop, but to no avail. An incident involving a local bus turns into a riot, forcing the police department to intervene and it paves way for events that leave you shocked.

Karnan raises several valid questions – all equally important- about the state of the oppressed community in our society. Through soul-stirring visuals of Theni Eswar, the film gives us a front row seat to the events that led to the infamous Kodiyankulam riots which was allegedly orchestrated by the police. The film throws the spotlight on police brutality and abuse of power but at the same time, it’s also a heart wrenching drama about Dalits being denied even their most basic needs. The film is beautifully empowered by so many metaphors, especially one involving a donkey, and the way they’re used to convey the intended message is commendable.

While Mari Selvaraj deserves all the praise for his vision, it is Theni Eswar who brings these images to life with his soul-stirring visuals. If Mari Selvaraj’s first film Pariyerum Perumal was about education, Karnan is about agitation. The filmmaker brings forth his inner anger to talk about caste politics and police excesses.

Dhanush as Karnan is one of the prime reasons why the film works, and he’s great to watch as the guide to the people of his village. Veteran Malayalam actor Lal gets a meaty part and as Karnan’s mentor and has a solid presence. Both Rajisha Vijayan and Lakshmipriyaa Chandramouli, two key female characters, play their parts convincingly. Lakshmi as Dhanush’s elder brother delivers one of the best performances from the supporting cast. The running commentary about gods and their indifference makes for a very interesting sub-plot. Santhosh Narayanan’s music plays a crucial role in accentuating the mood of the film.

Karnan will definitely go down as one of the most powerful films of Tamil cinema in recent years.

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Karnan Movie Review

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Home » Reviews » South Indian Movie Reviews

Karnan Movie Review: Dhanush & Lal With Mari Selvaraj Give A Traumatising Visual Marvel About Discrimination & Police Brutality

Karnan is enough to make you uncomfortable that you pause the film at least a few times..

Star Cast: Dhanush, Lal, Rajisha Vijayan, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, Yogi Babu, Gouri G. Kishan, and ensemble.

Director: Mari Selvaraj

What’s Good: caste discrimination, oppression and atrocities are limited to newspapers and TV channels for privileged folks like you and me. Selvaraj drags you in this shatteringly stunning visual telling of the story and makes you live the life of suffocation for almost 160 minutes.

What’s Bad: My ignorance that I did not ever look at the evil levels of oppression some communities still face to get basic things.

Loo Break: Karnan is enough to make you uncomfortable that you pause the film at least a few times. Utilise those moments of shock to do the deed. But once you press the play button, there is no chance you are allowed to move.

Watch or Not?: It’s a story about people like you and me. It is being told to you through a mythological and symbolic approach, so you know how vast the gap between the powerful and powerless is. Watch and make others do too. Awareness is the key.

A Dalit community is living in a small village, caged from all sides by powerful people who don’t allow them to have a voice. Amid them rises Karnan (Dhanush), a young man who becomes the voice of the community who pray to the faceless god. Karnan becomes the face and resists the powerful, creating sparks that do burn his surroundings.

Karnan Movie Review: Script Analysis

It isn’t that any of us don’t know systemic oppression exists. We conveniently give it a side-eye, but not Mari Selvaraj, who is consistent in showing what people on the lower level of the hierarchy have to go through. There is a structure to his showcase of individuals rising from the resistance. Unlike Pariyerum Perumal, Karnan does not believe in sitting silently, even for a minute.

Also written by Mari, Karnan is a metaphorical film by taking references from the mythological story Mahabharat. The movie opens up with a girl younger than even 10, who is battling a seizure in the middle of a busy road and needs help. The camera zooms out, buses pass from her sides, she continues to battle, she dies but none of the vehicles stops. The camera zooms in, and her face is now replaced by a facade (mask) of a deity. Her life had no value for the people watching her die like a stray dog.

The writer-director with his team is not here to tell you the story while you sit in comfort. They want to take you to the very core of this community and make you live with them, and their struggles. Karnan, aka Dhanush , is introduced to us through the track Kandaa Vara Sollunga, a song more of a cry for help than introducing their hero. He is Karnan, the saviour who will become the face of their headless god. The whole film has names from the Mahabharat. Selvaraj suffices two purposes. First, he makes the evil and the good clear. Second, he manages to give the high born protagonists, of the mythological epic, a low born twist and shows what if the tables were turned.

There is a war in the movie, the war between people who want to rise high and the ones who don’t let them. Their demands are not the sky, but ones that people living in a city with good infrastructure don’t even pay much attention to. Their plight is to have a bus stop, let their kids study, their girls be safe when they roam around alone. But what they get in return is police brutality, caste discrimination, harassment, lack of resources and so on.

Mari Selvaraj who gives this movie a mythological twist shows how even the gods have dulled out and taken their blessing away from this community. The deities have almost faded; one of them doesn’t even have a head. Which means their saviour doesn’t have a face. They themselves have to become their saviour. Karnan is filled with some amazing metaphors.

It draws an ample amount of similarities and references from nature. For instance, a donkey is set free to roam around, but 2 of his feet are tied so it cannot run. A quick nod to the community, who is given their land, saying they can delve there. But are they allowed to do that peacefully? No. The donkey learns to hop until a saviour comes to the rescue. And it is Karnan in both cases.

The film is about the hopeless existence of people who have to fight for the most basic necessities. The writing in Karnan is simple; it does not give you twists and turns and suspense doses. It instead gives you an abundance of discomfort and makes sure you feel it to your gut. Every time a police officer beats an innocent for no crime, every time the powerful men from the parallel village talk ill about the low born women, every single time their homeland is ridiculed to a wasteland, you must experience what it feels likes, Selvaraj with his team makes that sure. Police officer beats the people because they didn’t take off their turban in front of him because they looked him into the eye because they have names of the iconic warriors. Check if there’s even a single crime in that.

How ironic is the fact that the Bollywood film Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, which glorifies Police brutality as if it is the need of the hour and normal, released at the same time on OTT as Karnan. Chose where you put your money wisely.

Karnan Movie Review: Star Performance

I cannot even imagine anyone else, but Dhanush playing this role. Some notes similar to his Vetri Maram epic Asuran, Dhanush roars like a lion who has been kept away from his prey with force. The actor embodies Karnan as he stands with the sun in his backdrop. There is no lousy bone at all, just an impeccable performance. For a man who has met the actor in real life, I am forever shocked how he manages to pull off characters so far away from his real self.

Lal is a stalwart, and my experience is minuscule in front of the talent the man possesses and the calibre he has proved. Cutest when needed, and the most brutal when the situation demands, Lal becomes the man Friday to Karnan and wins our heart all over again. Yogi Babu, for that matter, finally has a character that respects him. A seasoned actor can prove himself if given parts that do justice to their calibre. Yogi proves it this time, as he isn’t comic relief.

The women in this universe have the agency. Resistance is a bone that the community has grown over the years. Women weren’t left behind, and the characters make sure they obey it. Rajisha Vijayan plays Karnan’s love interest Draupathi (another Mahabharat reference), and a strong-headed girl. While she is a treat watching, I hope her character was explored more. Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli plays Padmini, Karnan’s sister and is a character I won’t mind having a separate spin-off for.

Karnan Movie Review: Direction, Music

Mari Selvaraj is a beast when it comes to shooting in the heartlands. He shows you vast landscapes, open skies and ample space, but somehow creates enough claustrophobia too. He doesn’t take the camera away from scenes that will make one cover their eyes; instead, he zooms in. He makes his actors live the life of lack of vanity and tans them under the real scorching heat of the sun. Authenticity seems to be his favourite word.

Santosh Narayanan’s music is similar to Karnan’s sharp sword. It pierces right into your guts and adds more thrill to this already thrilling ride. Kandaa Vara Sollunga will haunt me for another few days, but I won’t stop listening to it on loop.

Theni Eswar’s camera is a master at creating fusions. Watch the video for the aforementioned song and you will know. Connecting mythology to the story, metaphors to the story and even nature, Eswar does that without anything looking out of context. Read the trivia on Prime which says, in a scene where police are assaulting the village heads, he randomly shot a butterfly that was trapped in the closed doors. It made it to the final cut!

Karnan Movie Review: The Last Word

You need to watch the right kinds of film. By that, I won’t say which I feel are right. But there are no two ways that Karnan is one of them in your and mine list together. While entertainment, we need awareness and realisation of where we exactly are. Karnan deserves your attention.

Karnan Trailer

Karnan releases on 14th May, 2021.

Share with us your experience of watching Karnan.

Skipping this film? Read our Joji review to know why you should must watch that.

Must Read: Jathi Ratnalu Movie Review: Naveen Polishetty’s Film Is A Randomly Satisfying Laugh Riot

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Karnan: A deep reading into Mari Selvaraj’s subversive searing saga

Black and white paintings adorn the walls of Mari Selvaraj’s bustling office. Welcoming you into his office is a large painting of Arya Stark on horseback, wearing her sword. There are other paintings: of warriors, of gladiators brandishing their swords; paintings that radiate the burning spirit of his new film. Two of them, especially, belong intimately and spiritually to the world of his Karnan. One is of a Herculean king, on an elephant, wielding a sword and riding alone in the wilderness. Remember the majesty of Karnan on an elephant after triumphantly slashing a fish into two in the village ritual. His legend as the chosen one is cemented here. The king in the painting, however, seems uncertain, a look of alarm visible on his face, as he considers the potential dangers lurking in the woods. Another imposing painting is placed above the filmmaker’s upholstered chair, in the intimate confines of his room. It is a recreation of an iconic frame from Game of Thrones : a shot in the Battle of the Bastard episode, that has Jon Snow wielding a sword, ready to take on the swarming soldiers of Bolton. Snow, like Karnan, suffers condemnation for the illegitimacy of his birth, and is always reminded that he does not belong. He owns and ‘knows nothing’, and yet, rises to fight for his land. The story and emotional relevance of these paintings is quite clear.

Karnan , the director’s sophomore outing, is a saga that is subversive, searing, and thrillingly surrealistic. The narrative assumes the staggering proportions of an epic, leaving you suffering an overwhelmed silence. Interestingly, the director’s first book, ‘ Thamirabaraniyil Kollapadaathavargal ’ had a short based on the Thamirabarani massacre of July 23, 1999. Impelled by the horrific event, Mari’s short is about revolution, police brutality, communal violence... In Karnan , a world haunted by the murdered, the survivors, like in the short, rise in revolt in a story partly based on the Kodiyankulam riots of 1995. Mari Selvaraj has created and positioned his world with an auteur’s finesse, with a dreamer’s passion.

Here is an exploration into his ambitious second film that establishes him as an irresistible force in Indian cinema:  

The Mahabharata parallels

Mari’s debut feature, Pariyerum Perumal , followed the journey and struggles of Pariyan, who is confronted with the hostilities of the world in a law college. In Karnan , even before a young girl can get to a college, violence erupts and cuts her wings. The struggle begins earlier here and is more primal and vehement; violence becomes inevitable. The happenings are also set further in the past, nearly eight years before the events of Pariyerum Perumal .

There is strong subversion at the film’s core, a subversion of artistic and socio-cultural relevance. The film’s eponymous character is inspired from the Mahabharata and the narrative is a critical reading of the ancient saga. Karnan in the epic is a tragic hero, raised by a family of charioteers who are of a lower social status. The film removes the idea that Karnan is blessed with divine boons; in the film, he suffers losses and has to make himself heard. Mahabharata is a sprawling twisted tale with myriad complex characters, in which moral boundaries often get blurred. A main preoccupation of the Bharata is the fight between the just and the unjust. Karnan too is a quest for justice and equality, one that rages with fury.

The Mahabharata parallels are very many. Karnan characters are bestowed with royal names; the film even has a gambling scene which sees conflict and tension. The villainous symbol of oppression and the brutal abuse of power is a policeman called Kannabiran. While in Mahabharata , it is Krishna who breaks the truth to Karnan about his birth, in this film, Kannabiran is shown harbouring deep prejudices towards Karnan on account of his identity. He expects subservience. Mari also sparks an intimate romance between Karnan and Draupadi, a romance forbidden in the original saga due to communal differences; many retellings of the tale speak of how the Queen pined for her unrealised love. Through his fascinating subversion, Mari Selvaraj reshapes the identity and destiny of his characters.

An earlier significant adaptation of Karna’s story in Tamil cinema was Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathi (1991), which was more invested in the emotional dynamics of a boy’s aching quest for his mother’s love. In the film, Surya (Rajinikanth) is constantly harassed for the illegitimacy of his birth and one of the major conflicts is his confrontation with authority figures including the police and the collector. The film, despite touching upon caste and identity, does not venture into a deeper exploration. Yet, it did speak of the tragic romance between Subbulakshmi and Surya, who ends up marrying the more educated, Surya’s half-brother, Arjun.

It has taken Tamil cinema three decades after Thalapathi to see another powerful, original adaptation of Karna’s story, which narrates a remarkable story of dissent. In Karnan , Dhanush aspires to be a soldier and later turns into a rebellious warrior figure. Echoes of the Surya-Deva dynamic can be found in the endearing relationship Karnan shares with his old granddad, Yeman. Karnan’s Draupadi also has more agency than Subbulakshmi. While Mani Ratnam’s interest was concentrated on the emotional core of his film which led to the negation of its own politics, Mari Selvaraj’s film benefits from the filmmaker’s focus on the interaction of his characters with the forces of their world.

The poetry of Mari Selvaraj

The filmmaker also actively and passionately draws from his own life, as he has repeatedly confessed.  The origin and rootedness of Mari Selvaraj’s art in his own life lends an immensity and piercing quality to his art. Recall how post his banger-hit ‘ Enjoy Enjaami ’, singer-songwriter Arivu shared, “I don’t want to be a political artist. I want to be a real artist. But being real is being political right now.” These words explain why the realism of Mari Selvaraj’s art is politically charged. Actor Vallinayagam, one among the many talents introduced in Karnan by the filmmaker shared a brief personal note on Facebook after the release of the film’s folksy song, ‘ Manjanathi Puranam ’. He recounts joyously spending time on the shoot of this song that bears the name of his grandmother. When sharing this with the director, he was startled to learn that the latter’s grandmother too had had the same name. It’s an anecdote that reveals the intimate relationship Mari Selvaraj’s art shares with his life, and with those around him, as he chronicles the poetry, power, and struggles of everyday life of these people. He is not merely documenting reality though; he poetises and fictionalises reality to suit the needs of his cinematic art.

During the press meet of Karnan , the director addressed a deeply existential question encircling the minds of artists, “Who am I? What is the basis of my art?” Mari Selvaraj replied, “I am a poet. I build my film, my shots, with the precision and poetry of verses.” He shared how he raised Karnan like a fire, how he fuelled the flames crackling in the darkness of its nights. Karnan, the character, too is naturally all fire.

In his book, Sculpting in Time , Tarkovsky wrote about the poetry of a filmmaker and its implication on the filmmaker’s art while discussing the art of Luis Bunuel. Tarkovsky wrote, “Bunuel is the bearer, above all else, of poetic consciousness. He knows that aesthetic structure has no need of manifestos, that the power of art does not lie there but in emotional persuasiveness.” It’s the sort of commentary that even in these early days of Mari Selvaraj’s filmography, seems to apply to him. His awareness of the aesthetic structure, his poetic consciousness, and his quasi-musical and eloquent visual treatment of his film has avoided the risk of his politically profound film being slighted as propaganda, or ‘another moralising mass movie with a message’.

The nature of poetry lends itself to profuse imagery and metaphors. Karnan , naturally, has striking metaphors in its world: the horse, donkey, sword, folk deities... All of them combine to achieve a powerful emotional and aesthetic impact. The poetry of the maker brims both in the polychromatic initial half of the film and its urgent final act. The major conflict is introduced only around the interval point. This is also true of his first film in which he leisurely weaves episodes from the chequered student life of Pariyan before he gets abused in the marriage hall and realises the prejudices around him. The interval point in Pariyerum Perumal is emotional depression, while in Karnan , there is a rousing uprising that screams liberation and poetic justice.

The poetic liberty the filmmaker revels in is evident even in the very first song where he subverts the hero introduction trope of Tamil cinema. He wreathes Karnan in glory, yes, but it’s a melancholic lament that summons a captured guardian. Amid the dark of the night, his memory alone blisters into flames and light. This is a visual play of light and darkness, of day and night in the opening ballad. It breaches the barrier of the screen and transcends into our reality. It makes us invested; we too ache, mourn and cry out for Karnan.

Cinematic resonance across the world

The political and artistic resonance of Karnan is universal. There are echoes to Kurasowa’s classic Seven Samurai , with both films centering around villages under attack. In Seven Samurai , the villagers seek their protectors outside. Here, an individual’s rebellion results in a unified uprising of the village. Karnan also shares a crucial spiritual connection with the blisteringly political 2019 Brazilian film, Bacurau directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles. The film, streaming on MUBI is the story of an isolated village in Brazil that is cut off from water supply, internet and is subsequently erased from the nation’s maps. Faced with Western invaders empowered by local authorities to destroy the village, the villagers rise and revolt, defending their land under siege. The eerie and pulpy Bacurau bears a significant metaphor of a bird which gives the film its title.

Karnan too bears the metaphor of a bird, a thieving eagle that preys on nestlings. It’s a recurrent reference in the film, in both visuals and dialogues. Every time danger runs close, Karnan is warned that he will be pecked and snatched away. In the village gathering, a devastated Duryodhanan prays that the youth of the village fly away somewhere, away from the crushing oppression. In the stirring war anthem, 'Utradheenga Yeppov ', Dhee sings, “We are going to fly all around the world, where are our wings?”

In Bacurau , we don’t see the hunting bird that the village is named after; we only hear of this bird that symbolises power and liberation. It is said to come out only at night, almost like a vigilante. This genre-defying film was acclaimed for its subversive take on Westerns and horror thrillers. These tendencies of the film bind it to Karnan . This does not imply that the existence of one film inspired the other, but that the presence of such films independent of one another, drawn from the politics of their respective lands, stands testimony to the universality of art.

The anger rippling in Karnan also reminds you of the 2019 French film, Les Misérables : “What if voicing our anger was the only way to be heard?” The very fact that Karnan can be talked about in immediate relation to Bacurau and Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables echoes the sentiments and sensibilities of these artists, and the social tension seething in their respective lands. Les Misérables , alike Karnan , was inspired by a real riot, specifically the 2005 Paris riots that shook France. Les Misérables is set in 2018, Karnan in 1997 and Bacurau in the future. It is chilling to note how three films hailing from completely varied cultures, set in different times unite in their central social theme and contemplation, revealing the reality that there is a long way to go for many societies across the world. It is fascinating how these three films position children at the forefront of definitive narrative situations; it becomes a commentary on the horror of generational angst being passed on to them and the urgent need to free them all from the terror.

An ecosystem of art, and the love for symbolism and animals

With Karnan and its portrayal of life in Southern Tamil Nadu, Mari Selvaraj has also reinvented neo-nativity in Tamil cinema. He films his stories in his native village and creates his art with the passionate involvement of villagers hailing from the region. Even in the cases of Bacurau and Les Misérables , the filmmakers filmed their stories in actual locations of the story’s setting and largely involved locals to act prominent parts to make their film more rooted. Empowerment of local talent and embracing nativity prove to be universal features in the new age social cinema.

Besides striving for rootedness and nativity, Mari Selvaraj’s cinema also strives to create an aesthetic that evokes something raw and exotic. Remember the monochrome lyric video of Uttradheenga Yeppov . Singing in the dark amidst smoke filling the night, Dhee was cloaked in a black cape. With posters of the film and the fabled sword of Karnan left alone and unattended, the song had an enchanting Gothic vibe to it. Dhee looked at once like a vigilante and a guardian angel, a contemporary semblance of Kaatupechi.

The donkey is a potent metaphor in Karnan . It signifies oppression, an oppression that distorts the free nature of the being, resulting in its domestication and slavery. The bound legs of the animal eerily invoke images from Karnan’s posters, where we see him, wounded, his hands chained. There are scarce empathetic portrayals of the animal in cinema, given that they are usually degraded beasts of burden. How many filmmakers have ventured to inquire about the nature of this animal, how it is treated and what it says about society's psychology? A touching portrait of the animal I can recollect dates back to the 60’s in Robert Bresson’s French film, Au Hasard Balthazar . The donkey is the titular character called Balthazar. The French auteur deeply explores the Christ-like suffering of the animal, human cruelty, and the plundering of its innocence. Balthazar, the donkey, is a metaphorical representation of Prince Myschkin in Bresson’s highly idiosyncratic adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot .

Animals and nature form an important component in the world of Mari Selvaraj, be it Karuppi in Pariyerum Perumal , or the magnificent black horse and the donkey in Karnan . They are primarily tied to his films where life coexists with elements of nature, with the heat, the rains, pigs, and goats. They also seamlessly enhance the mood of the film, subtly invoking the external and internal world of the characters. When Karnan’s family pleads him to dig the floor during the dead of the night, the dog is stirred awake and a cat steps out of its shelter as he lands the first blow. As the earthen pot breaks, a horse neighs in the night. With secrets and treasures unearthed, a stronger mental torment also awakens in Karnan at that point, taking possession of him. It is an awakening of repressed sorrow and painful memories which come to haunt the present. The worms crawling over the coins is another visceral image which returns with an eerie edge in the scene where Kannabiran pierces them to the fishing rod. The imagery bears great symbolic weight. While the worms are held tenderly as protectors of treasure in one’s hands, they are mercilessly used by another as mere prey.

Death is just the beginning

Talking about Karnan , Mari Selvaraj hailed how he had mounted the film on Gods. Post the prelude song, the very first shot of the film shows a sun rising in the backdrop of a beheaded idol. These are gods, subaltern deities who rise to divine stature by their stories… stories of injustice, of valor, tragedies, and rebellion. Karnan starts with the death of his sister. The camera pulls away as she breathes her last on a cruelly indifferent road, and when it descends on her again, she has moved from life to legend. The filmmaker’s stories always begin with death, be it his two films or two books. Karuppi’s death and the funeral cries opened Pariyerum Perumal . Death, in some crucial way, prepares all of us for life, initiating us into it, pushing us to probe it. If the death of Karuppi was the initiation for Pariyan, making him aware of the ruthlessness of communal hatred, the death of his sister creates a similar jolt in Karnan . It is his initiation into the realities of his world where some lives don’t matter. 

As he utters later in the film, the death of his younger sister is why he is what he is, why he burns with a fire for rebellion and liberation. Karuppi rises with an exhilarating metaphorical bearing in Naan Yaar , and Karnan’s sister rises, her spirit and suffering multiplied manifold in the war anthem of Karnan . Her haunting and powerful omnipresence in the narrative gives Karnan a unique folkloric surrealism. When the bus is wrecked in the interval point of the film, the freed donkey goes to the spirit of Karnan’s sister that wanders by the hills. Karnan unleashes all his angst and stands by the idol of the goddess whose spirit watches over him from the hills.

Karnan’s legend of being the chosen one begins with him winning the fabled sword. The sword evokes ‘Excalibur’ from the Arthurian legend. An intriguing point of connection is that some legends claim how Excalibur was gifted to the King by the Lady of the Lake, and when he was fatally injured, the king apparently ordered it to be thrown into the waters. There is a similar sequence in the film involving the sword when Karnan’s mother throws it in the pond believing it to have brought misfortune upon her son.

War and peace

There are several battles throughout Karnan which lead up to the climactic war: the fight in the cattle farm which exudes a Texan ‘wild west’ feel, the wrecking of the bus and police station, blows to the abuse of authority… With every battle being more menacing than the last, Podiyankulam finally goes to war. As a reactionary film and narrative, Karnan is impressively sensitive. Violence is not treated as stylised orgy. Even the violence and what necessitates it is utilised to probe something existential and tragic.

When the village rises and readies itself for war, heavens erupt into pouring rain before the long night and the fateful dawn. The thundering rains create a fine atmospheric chaos, signaling something decisive after the prolonged heat of oppression that has scorched the village dry. The rains and Karnan’s rebellious roar summon the verses of Mari Selvaraj himself, “உனக்கென்று அடுத்த முறை நான் வருவேனெனில் இடி, மின்னல், 

மழை கூட்டி வருவேன்”.  

The entire police rampage unfolds as a mother’s cries resound everywhere, sending shivers of horror through us. Her prolonged struggle and the village’s fight rage with the pain of birth, the birth of a new life and liberation. A life is sacrificed while a new one enters the world. How gut-wrenching that the first lullaby the child hears is a lament, a funereal cry.

The climactic confrontation epitomises the core subversion of the tale. The saga of killing is one of torment and rethinks the way of justice. The killing occurs inside an old, dilapidated temple on whose walls we once again see paintings of folkloric gods, resembling Kattupechi. As Karnan does the inevitable, he does it out of regret and sorrow, breaking down in wails.

The subsequent shots after the killing are especially rousing, and to me, they come charged with the emotional center of the film. The liberated new generation which bears the stains and sins of the bloodied past are cleansed of the blood. Revelling in the new-found freedom, a foal leaps in the air, its legs unbound. The whole of the film and its struggles lead up to achieve this moment of liberation. After years of the tragedy, the ravaged land still aches with the plight of its terror and the pain of sacrifice. An uneasy peace invades the air as Karnan stands in front of Yemaraja’s painting on the wall. The grief slowly dissipates, leading to a moment of catharsis as they all finally dance their sorrow away. It is unsettling when Kaatupechi appears, applauding the merry. She vanishes into glowing fireflies, into the very spirit of the night. Remember how Pariyan ran towards the setting sun in Naan Yaar song, bearing a torch in hand. With justice, his spirit, Karnan’s and hers will rise ablaze every dawn as the raging sun.

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Review: In ‘Housekeeping for Beginners,’ a makeshift family evokes universal pain

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Romania’s Anamaria Marinca has a knack for playing characters you’d want in your corner during a crisis. The actor, who starred in Cristian Mungiu’s harrowing 2007 abortion thriller “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” is the eye of the storm in Goran Stolevski’s “Housekeeping for Beginners,” a riveting domestic drama that finds her similarly raging against the machine.

No one smokes a cigarette with such quiet, harried intensity as Marinca, nor is there any forgetting her glittering stare, both of which Stolevski utilizes to great effect. In his third feature in as many years — this one was selected as Macedonia’s Oscar entry for international feature — the filmmaker plunges us into a swirling eddy of merry but harrowing chaos among an unusual family. The film is a showcase for the skill and screen presence of the criminally underrated Marinca, who stars as Dita, a lesbian social worker trying to hold together her tribe by sheer force of will, coaxing and cajoling the system in order to knit together her queer found family.

There’s a deeply humanist core to Stolevski’s work, which varies in genre and tone, but always captures the bittersweet beauty of life. He made his feature debut with 2022’s “You Won’t Be Alone,” a life-affirming fairy tale in which Marinca co-starred as a grotesquely disfigured witch. His sophomore feature, “Of an Age,” is a romance about two young men who connect in a beach town in Melbourne.

We enter “Housekeeping for Beginners” with a burst of joyous song, as Ali (Samson Selim), Vanesa (Mia Mustafa) and Mia (Dzada Selim) dance and sing around a living room. Their carefree fun is quickly juxtaposed with a burst of rage in a doctor’s office, as Suada (Alina Serban), with Marinca’s Dita by her side, explodes at a bored, negligent doctor. She’s furious at him for ignoring patients who look like her: Roma. With these two scenes, Stolevski establishes the film’s message and tone, weaving together childlike play and mischief with the crushing reality of racial and sexual inequality.

Stolevski, who wrote, directed and edited the film, delivers the relevant story details in snippets of dialogue and visual asides snatched out of the river of familial hubbub that is captured with a roaming handheld camera by cinematographer Naum Doksevski. Dita and Suada are partners. Suada’s kids, Vanesa and Mia, live with them in Dita’s home. Their gay roommate, Toni (Vladimir Tintor), had Ali over for a hookup, but Ali is so much fun he becomes one of the stray queer kids they collect, which also includes a trio of young lesbians (Sara Klimoska, Rozafa Celaj and Ajse Useini) who seek refuge in this “safe house.”

Suada has cancer and knowing that her prognosis is terminal, she demands that Dita become the mother of her girls: a final, fierce act to secure their future. She also requests that Dita give them Toni’s last name so that they might escape the discrimination she faced as a Roma woman. The girls need legal guardians and that is how a stressed lesbian and grumpy gay man find themselves married. To each other.

Within “Housekeeping’s” restless, naturalistic aesthetic, Stolevski crafts complex and poignant images, contrasting the playacting the couple is forced to do with their searing gazes. At a parent-teacher conference, condolences are delivered to Toni, but the camera rests on the bereaved Dita’s face, unable to openly grieve the loss of her longtime partner. Their formal courthouse wedding is also a study in ironic double meaning, as Ali sits next to his lover Toni, but only as a witness. At a raucous, booze-soaked celebration at home later, Ali thanks Dita for the opportunity to sit in front of the marriage registrar with the man he loves.

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There’s no preciousness or over-explication about the sociopolitical issues that shape their reality and make up the fabric of their lives: how they move in the world, the risks they take, the dreams they have. It is a quotidian kind of oppression, rendered here as a series of irritating clerical hoops, though the consequences of not jumping through them could be deadly.

While Stolevski’s subject matter is sobering, there is a dry humor at play, coupled with real warmth. Dzada Selim steals the movie as the precocious Mia, and if Dita is the spine of the family, Samson Selim’s Ali is its heart, his ability to connect proving valuable when Vanesa’s teenage rebellions spiral out of control.

Stolevski’s scripts always bear a line that pierces the heart of life itself and “Housekeeping for Beginners” is no exception. “It doesn’t go away, the needing,” Dita promises Vanesa, “even when you get old. It’s a nasty business.” It’s a beautiful, brutally apt way to describe both a family and the human condition, concisely expressed in the way only Stolevski can.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Housekeeping for Beginners'

In Macedonian, Albanian and Romani, with English subtitles Rating: R, for sexual content, language throughout and some teen drinking Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Playing: Now at AMC The Grove 14, Los Angeles; AMC Century City 15

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Spy x Family Code: White

After receiving an order to be replaced in Operation Strix, Loid decides to help Anya win a cooking competition at Eden Academy, by making the director's favorite meal in order to prevent hi... Read all After receiving an order to be replaced in Operation Strix, Loid decides to help Anya win a cooking competition at Eden Academy, by making the director's favorite meal in order to prevent his replacement. After receiving an order to be replaced in Operation Strix, Loid decides to help Anya win a cooking competition at Eden Academy, by making the director's favorite meal in order to prevent his replacement.

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'Wicked Little Letters' review: Who wrote letters that sent an English village into an uproar?

The "Wicked Little Letters" start arriving even before the dark comedy has begun.

The movie is about the escalating battle between prim Englishwoman Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), who is given to remarking that suffering is a gift because it strengthens her, and new neighbor Rose (Jessie Buckley). Edith pretends to like Rose, in the same way she pretends to like suffering, but there are plenty of reasons to feud with her neighbor: She is Irish. She is a single mother who lives with a Black man. She is loud (some of that involves the man). She swears like a sailor would if he dropped an anchor on his foot. She drinks. And she isn't especially tidy.

Inspired by events that happened in an English village in the 1920s, "Wicked Little Letters" is an "Odd Couple" situation and the two leads are spectacular. The stakes get high quickly — someone (possibly Edith) reports Rose to child protection authorities, which leads to her being jailed. Meanwhile, the acts described in the profane letters Rose receives, and seems to relish reading aloud, get increasingly vile and physically impossible.

A big part of the appeal of "Wicked" is its leads, who also shared billing (and Oscar nominations) in "The Lost Daughter" but did not share the screen, since they played the same woman at different stages of life. Both actors are adept at cluing us in that there's more to their characters than what's on the surface, which makes their many scenes together especially good.

We know there are secrets, even if we don't know what they are, and we suspect that buttoned-up Edith and knicker-free Rose might be more similar than either would care to admit. Buckley's ferocity often hides her characters' vulnerability (as in "Women Talking"), which Rose eventually reveals. And Colman's half-concealed smiles let us know Edith, who still lives with her domineering parents, gets a bang out of the nasty language. It's almost as if, as in "Lost Daughter," the two are in separate stories that turn out to be the same story.

I suspect "Wicked" might have felt one-note if those two were all it had going for it but a zesty supporting cast fills in additional colors. There's a Greek chorus of villagers — played by, among others, Anjana Vasan, Hugh Skinner (playing a guy even dumber than the one he played in sitcom "W1A") and the legendary Eileen Atkins.

Their shifting takes on the poison-pen letter situation keep us interested in the mystery of who's sending them while also contributing to what turns out to be the theme of the movie: that women in '20s England were desperate to get out of the boxes society thrust upon them, whether they were a belittled police officer with no authority (Vasan) or a single mom, trying to raise her kid under the disapproving eye of her bored neighbor.

About an hour into "Wicked," we find out who sent the letters. You may have guessed by then; it wouldn't take Selena Gomez to get to the bottom of this one. But the movie actually gets richer once we know what's going on. Like many villains, this one doesn't think of themselves as a villain. They're just dying to be heard in a world where no one cares what they say.

'Wicked Little Letters'

Rated R: for language throughout and sexual material.

Running time: 100 minutes

In theaters Friday

'Monkey Man' review: Underestimate Dev Patel at your own peril after this action movie

In his directorial debut “Monkey Man,” Dev Patel gifts action-movie fans with a multilayered, hyperviolent narrative. Sure, he pulls off a deep dive into Indian mythology, yet he's pretty darn good at attacking goons with fireworks, platform shoes and all manner of sharp objects too.

More “Rocky” than “John Wick,” the gritty and gory revenge thriller (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) is a love letter to his two-fisted influences, from Bruce Lee movies to Asian cult flicks like “Oldboy” and “The Raid.” But the underdog story, produced by Jordan Peele, also shows a bunch of new sides to Patel, who knuckles up as a legit action star and a guy who can make a movie that’s totally cool, occasionally amusing and impressively thoughtful.

'Monkey Man': Dev Patel got physical for his new movie, and he has the broken bones to prove it

Patel also co-wrote the screenplay, a modern take on the mythos of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Kid (Patel) competes in an underground Indian fight club, though his job is mainly to take a bloody beating while wearing a monkey mask and hope his colorful boss Tiger (Sharlto Copley) doesn’t stiff him on pay.

At the same time, our hero is also haunted by the murder of his mom and a traumatic childhood, which fuels Kid’s mission of vengeance to take down those responsible. He gets a chance to infiltrate a repressive political system by working in a high-end brothel and starts causing problems for power players including a narcissistic, no-good celebrity guru (Makarand Deshpande) and a corrupt police chief (Sikander Kher).

With the holiday of Diwali on the way, as well as an important election, they don’t need someone like Kid messing things up. He becomes a wanted man and ends up left for dead in the street, where he’s found by a tribe of trans women who like Kid have been marginalized. Their leader Alpha (Vipin Sharma) nurses him back to health yet also imparts a key lesson: Instead of enduring pain and suffering as his primary existence, Kid needs a purpose in life.

While the piecemeal rollout of Kid’s backstory and bits of the Hanuman tale muddy the plot at first, “Monkey Man” swings into a groove when the main character is at his lowest point. Kid gets himself (and the movie) into gear in a lively montage where he uses a bag of wheat for punching practice as Alpha offers up a nifty percussion accompaniment. (It’s the next best thing to Survivor songs psyching up Rocky Balboa back in the day.)

Thusly inspired and trained, Kid goes on a righteous rampage and literally fights his way to the top floor of the villainous big boss. Patel can craft a mean action sequence, whether between ring ropes as masked men duke it out for crowds, a speedy car chase involving a tuk-tuk named after Nicki Minaj, or Kid kicking, stabbing and brawling his way through hordes of bad guys. As the guy at the center of these battles, the Oscar-nominated Patel ("Lion") never seems or looks out of place, even borrowing Keanu Reeves’ fashionable panache when it comes to gnarly combat couture.

The fact that “Monkey Man” includes social-cultural context, as something meaty to chew on rather than a throwaway thematic thread, is the cherry on top of Patel’s bloody sundae. He’s managed to craft a rare action movie that makes you think and also will joyfully plunge a metal rod into a dude’s brain.

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Movie Reviews

'la chimera' is marvelous — right up to its most magical ending.

Justin Chang

Carol Duarte and Josh O'Connor in La Chimera . Neon hide caption

Carol Duarte and Josh O'Connor in La Chimera .

The wonderful 42-year-old filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher practices a kind of cinema that I've come to think of as "Italian magical neorealism." She gives us portraits of hard-scrabble lives in poor rural communities, but they're graced by a whimsical, almost fable-like sense of enchantment.

Rohrwacher's 2014 film, The Wonders , was a lyrical drama about a family of Tuscan beekeepers. She followed that in 2018 with Happy as Lazzaro , about a group of sharecroppers on a tobacco farm whose story moves from picaresque comedy to aching tragedy.

'The Wonders' Of Family And Change

Her marvelous new movie, La Chimera , follows in much the same vein, with one key difference. While Rohrwacher has generally worked with non-professional Italian actors, this time she's cast the English actor Josh O'Connor , best known for his Emmy-winning performance as a young Prince Charles on The Crown .

But O'Connor's character here doesn't give off even a whiff of royalty, even if his name is Arthur. When we first meet him, he's asleep on a train bound for his old stomping grounds in Tuscany. He's just been released from prison after serving some time for the crime of grave robbing.

Arthur has a mysterious archeological talent: Wielding a divining rod, he can detect the presence of buried artifacts, many of which date back to the Etruscan civilization more than 2,000 years ago. Arthur works with a group of tombaroli , or tomb raiders, who rely on him to figure out where to dig.

Upon his return, many of those old friends welcome him back with a parade — one of several moments in which Rohrwacher briefly channels the vibrant human chaos of a Fellini film. Arthur is a little reluctant to rejoin his old gang, since they let him take the rap after their last job. But he doesn't seem to have anything else to do, or anywhere else to go. He may be an outsider — his Italian throughout is decent but far from perfect — but it's the only place in the world that feels remotely like home. And O'Connor plays him with such a deep sense of melancholy that it feels almost special when his handsome, careworn face breaks into a warm smile.

It's not immediately clear what Arthur wants; unlike his cohorts, he doesn't seem all that interested in making money off their spoils. The answer turns out to lie in his dreams, which are haunted by a beautiful young woman named Beniamina — the love of his life, whom he's lost under unclear circumstances.

And so Arthur's determination to go underground becomes a metaphor for his longing for an irretrievable past: Beniamina is the Eurydice to his Orpheus, and he wants her back desperately.

Arthur is still close to Beniamina's mother, Flora, played with a wondrous mix of warmth and imperiousness by the great Isabella Rossellini. Her presence here made me think of her filmmaker father, the neorealist titan Roberto Rossellini — a fitting association for a movie about how the past is forever seeping into the present.

One of the pleasures of Rohrwacher's filmmaking is the way she subtly blurs our sense of time. La Chimera is set in the 1980s, but it could be taking place 20 years earlier, or 20 years later. Rohrwacher and her brilliant cinematographer, Hélène Louvart, shot the movie on a mix of film stocks and sometimes tweak the image in ways that evoke the cinematic antiquities of the silent era. As sorrowful as Arthur's journey is, there's a playfulness to Rohrwacher's sensibility that keeps pulling you in, inviting you to get lost in the movie's mysteries.

One of the story's most significant characters is Italia, played by the Brazilian actor Carol Duarte, who works in Flora's household. Italia is a bit of an odd duck with a beguiling bluntness about her, and she might be just the one to pull Arthur out of his slump and get him to stop living in the past.

I won't give away what happens, except to say that La Chimera builds to not one but two thrilling scenes of underground exploration, in which Arthur must finally figure out his life's purpose — not by using a divining rod, but by following his heart. And it leads to the most magical movie ending I've seen in some time, and also the most real.

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‘back to black’ review: flawed but affecting amy winehouse biopic benefits from marisa abela’s intensely physical performance.

Sam Taylor-Johnson's film about the dazzlingly talented English singer who died at age 27 also features Jack O'Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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Fans regularly make film biopics about famous musicians successful, but they also love to nitpick the results. Or to misquote Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division and the subject of a rather good musical biopic ( Control ), love will tear apart any work of fan service if it screws up the story, paints the subject in too unflattering a light or, worst of all, mangles the music with impersonations that barely rise above the level of karaoke. (Consider, if you dare, Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea .)  

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You might say that there’s no winning either way, except that the box-office hauls for films like Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody indicate that there’s winning galore to be had if a biopic hits the right sweet spot — somewhere between hagiography and desecration that sends viewers out humming the hits.

That Goldilocks zone is clearly what the filmmakers behind Back to Black were aiming for with this carefully calibrated portrait of the late Amy Winehouse , and largely they succeed. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh — who also happened to write Control as well as Nowhere Man , a portrait of John Lennon as a young man that was Taylor-Johnson’s directorial debut — Back to Black is, like its heroine, flawed and fallible but frequently very affecting.

Much of the credit should go to its star Marisa Abela, best known for her work on HBO’s Industry , who manages to project Winehouse’s distinctive blend of fragility, intelligence and cornered-wildcat self-destructiveness. Sexuality explodes off her, like that iconic beehive of hair, a heavy tonsorial crown full of want and need, cockiness and insecurity in equal measure. In strictly acting terms, it’s a barnstormer of a performance.

Perhaps the problem is recency bias that leaves viewers more disposed to appreciate the renditions from Winehouse’s still very familiar catalogue that they know best, the hit singles or the most iconic performances. One example near the end is the night Winehouse played the Grammys via satellite in London on the night she won best song for “Rehab.” That turn is recreated practically note for note here, and Abela gets every hip swing and jaw quaver right, wearing an exact copy of the Dolce & Gabbana dress Winehouse wore. For many viewers, this is just what they came for. Others may feel disappointed, however, that we never get to see the moment that night when Winehouse tells a friend backstage that none of this is as much fun as it was when she was on drugs, as reported in Asif Kapadia’s excellent documentary Amy .

Kapadia’s doc was criticized by Winehouse’s father Mitchell, perhaps because he comes across quite poorly in the editing as someone keen to profit from his daughter’s success. Apparently, Mitch Winehouse and the surviving members of Amy’s family gave the filmmakers advice for Back to Black , so it’s no surprise that Eddie Marsan’s version of cab-driver Mitch is much more sympathetic — even if, at a crucial moment, he doesn’t give in to pressure from Amy’s distraught manager (Sam Buchanan) to persuade her to go to rehab and get the help she clearly sorely needs. (Sorry, but no, no, no — that doesn’t look like good parenting.)

Abela and O’Connell’s fissile chemistry together is a reminder that despite the tackiness of Fifty Shades of Grey ‘s soft porn, Taylor-Johnson has a knack for evoking erotic longing — especially that of women looking at men, a subject she explored often in her photography and video work back in the days when she was best known as a visual artist and contemporary of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili and Tracey Emin.

In some ways, the flaws in Back to Black are similar to the weaknesses in her late 1990s/early 2000s art: a certain facile interest in surface, an obsession with celebrity and fame that lacks insight, a pop video-deep approach to narrative. By the end of Back to Black , we’ve observed Amy rise to fame, fall in love, get heartbroken, and die but we never really get to know what makes her tick. There’s a lot of emphasis on her familial relationships, not just with Mitch and the mother (Juliet Cowan) who barely features, but also with her grandmother Cynthia ( Lesley Manville , moving). But the film doesn’t examine how this seemingly happy clappy North London Jewish family singing Yiddish songs around the piano might have shaped Amy in any way apart from instilling a love of music and getting her into performing arts school.

Her talent, her grit, her beauty and her rage are as inexplicable as the song sung by the canary she inherits from Cynthia. But then that’s biopics — they always leave you wanting more.

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Xixi pictures sets its sights on building a global brand for chinese tv drama, ‘joker 2’ trailer unites joaquin phoenix and lady gaga in song, tim burton says gathering ‘beetlejuice’ team for sequel “was like a weird family reunion”, bong joon ho unveils irreverent first trailer for robert pattinson starrer ‘mickey 17’, kevin costner hopes ‘horizon: an american saga’ can be binged in theaters someday.