Review of movie Peranbu

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Rating:4/5

 Ram’s Peranbu is divided into multiple chapters, with each one alternately describing nature in the most glowing or loathing terms — Iyarkkai Athisayamaanathu, Iyarkkai Kodooramanathu, Iyarkkai Arputhamaanathu, Iyarkkai Aabathaanathu and so on. But that is how the life of the film’s protagonist, Amudhavan (Mammootty) is; for a while, his troubles seem to vanish only to reappear soon. Ram beautifully encapsulates this idea visually, by repeatedly us giving us shots of mist enveloping or lifting off from the lake by which Amudhavan resides during the first half of the film.

When the film begins, we see Amudhavan moving into a house by this lake with his daughter, Paapa (Sadhana), a spastic child. His wife has left him for another man, and he is forced to look after the daughter whom he has tried to avoid since she was born. Even as he makes attempts to bond with her, he realises that Paapa needs a female caregiver, especially because the teenaged girl is waking up to her sexuality. One moment, she is counting the stars, and the next, she is crushing over a star!

Right from his debut film, Kattradhu Tamizh, Ram’s protagonists have been flawed individuals engaged in a battle with society one way or the other. In Peranbu, Amudhavan is frustrated that society will not allow his disabled daughter to be in its midst, and takes her away to a place removed from human interaction. And when they are forced to return to the city, he has to deal with the yardsticks with which society looks at a special child.