Meera, a brusque young girl, comes to a village in search of her estranged grandmother on the latter’s constrained request. She seems fussy and impatient as she displays a look of pure hatred which flashes across her face since the very moment of her arrival to the village. The height of posh and remoteness with which she has been brought up in the urban environment don’t help her much with sudden encounter to this new environment, where the people are grounded and maintain a close kinship even with neighbours.
Sethum Aayiram Pon follows the lives and deaths of the legions of common people. It proves how death is nothing to have qualms about, how it should be welcomed and how the death is imperative to the continuance of life. The cumulative effects produced by the events transpire a new bond between Meera (Nivedhithaa Sathish) and her estranged grandma Krishnaveni (Srilekha Rajendiran). It is mapped so lyrically the importance of the relationships in life and how it is worth to forgive sometimes. It captures gradually how Meera’s indignation towards her grandma turns into the yearning love they both once wanted.
Debutant director Anand Ravichandran scores ingeniously high in those familiar grooves of rural environment. He pulls off the deadpan comedies with sheer brilliance. The scenes that are traced upon those uncustomary affairs are handled sensitively without being preachy or displaying any discomfort – Say the illegal affair between a man and a woman in the village which results in the man’s death during a consensual sex act, how Meera’s smoking is not used to define who she is or where she is from when subtly commented by Amutha that “grandma used to smoke cheroot too”, how the professions of the protagonist are neither elevated nor discarded and treated with much sensibility.
Sethum Aayiram Pon is a heartfelt portrayal of various deaths with dignity and those deaths act as the vital catalyst to bring people close. It gives closure to their struggle with themselves and helps to come in terms with their differences naturally. A well-made film, away from usual cliches, that’s unique in its own way.
I will not apologise: Rajinikanth about his comments on Periyar