Maamannan

The film: Taare Zameen Par; the moment: Ishaan gets left behind at a boarding school 16 years later: Mari Selvaraj made me tear up with #Maamannan, especially through several moments in its first half that will probably never leave my system In both films, the protagonists are punished for no fault of theirs. But in the case of #Maamannan, it doesn't stop with a single punishment or a single person: generations have paid and continue to pay the price Even though the weight of an extremely powerful first half becomes too heavy for the shoulders of a rather repetitive, weak second half that crumbles, beyond all its imperfections, I'll still root for #Maamannan and especially for its creator Mari Selvaraj for what he tries to say and the spectacular way he tries to say it in Many filmmakers have tried hard and failed to create compelling stories of social injustice but here's a storyteller whose canvas is painted with such strokes that it's no longer a painting to be watched & admired: you can smell the paint and hear the strokes scraping in your ears and feel its impact in your bones In every heart-wrenching montage made more powerful by Rahman's terrific soundtrack; in every heartless act of Fahadh Faasil's Velu that reminds you of Ralph Fiennes' monster from Schindler's List; in every look of guilt and helplessness of Vadivelu's Maamannan that reminds you of every father who couldn't stand up for himself... There's an anger and a scream that's too loud to be ignored anymore Maamannan may be an imperfect sword with rough and jagged edges...but it's still a sword powerful enough to pierce through More power to Mari🗡️