Even if not as sparkly, this film still gives you plenty to chew on

What is real gold? Hint: Character name. Hint: Golden appearance at the end of the film. Thangalaan is a film about a search party on the lookout for gold, yes, but it’s deep enough to launch a critique of material greed by telling us that one’s identity, one’s harmonious existence with the environment, is real wealth. This isn’t politics; this is profound enough to be philosophy.

During the Thangalaan journey, Ranjith touches upon the symbolic death of Buddhism. He speaks of the ills of Brahminism. There’s a passing line about Ramanujam and a reference to other castes being converted as Brahmins. Pasupathy hits a wonderful balance of being both comic and serious about his character, based on the needs of the film. His laughable aspiration of reaching vaikuntam is in stark contrast to the film’s point that heaven is possible on earth—and its insight into how religion sometimes serves to distance people from reality, leaving them praying for escapist resolutions. Also, through Thangalaan, we once again see Ranjith’s takedown of reliance on leader figures for salvation. The villagers also see the pitfalls of falling prey to chasing someone else’s version of happiness.

My favourite part of the film is how the hero, Thangalaan, takes a long time to behave like… a hero. He’s loving and naive, sure, but his thinking is all wrong. Perhaps that’s why he’s referred to as ‘satan’ for a while. Perhaps that’s why he’s so remorseless about all the animal life he’s killing. He casually decapitates a buffalo, many snakes, and smacks a black panther about. It’s not quite befitting the compassion that a Ranjith protagonist is usually capable of (“Paravayoda gunam parakkardhu, adha parakka vidu.”).

There are more traditional villains too, of course. There’s the nosy, crafty Brahmin supervisor. There’s the British leader of the expedition about whom Ranjith keeps us guessing for the longest time. Among the best moments in the film is when he speaks about wanting to help the villagers and the Brahmin supervisor mistranslates his English. However, Thangalaan sees right through it—and it makes for a lovely moment.

It’s a mark of the thought—and the craft—that Ranjith puts into these films that even though I didn’t resonate as well with Thangalaan as I have with other films of his, I still think it would be a disservice to dismiss this work. It would mean a refusal to acknowledge some striking moments—like that final fight scene that seems to happen across day and night, that seems to stretch across time. The battle between an oppressor and the oppressed is, of course, one that has gone on forever.

Pretty much everything this filmmaker has touched so far has turned to gold; perhaps this time, the results aren’t as sparkly. But that’s all right; you can see he’s still experimenting with form and more brazenly, the kind of stories that can be told in mainstream cinema and with a star no less. That’s its own kind of gold.

Director: Pa Ranjith

Cast: Vikram, Parvathy, Malavika Mohanan, Pasupathy

Rating : 3/5