Review by Chris Walts

Paruthiveeran is a complex story that interweaves love, murder, humour, and the Indian caste system almost effortlessly. Paruthiveeran, the male lead, is a drunk who resists the tender Muthazhagu’s love, instead choosing a life of mischief and hookers. Muthazhagu knows a different Paruthiveeran however, and has sworn that he will be the only man to see her naked after he saved her life as a child. Beautifully shot, writer/director Ameer's films seems to have been inspired by Shakespeare as it probes the complexities of family relationships and social expectations.

Unfortunately Paruthiveeran has a couple major flaws, the main one being largely illegible subtitles. Because of the way it was shot or colour timed, the white subtitles often got lost, especially in the flashbacks where much of the exposition needed to understand the story takes place. If the film had been as deep most of what is going on could have been ascertained by just the action, but because the film was so complex I just felt lost. The editing was also not that strong as the film often utilized jump cuts for seemingly no other reason than to cut down on overall run time. While these two flaws inevitably made the film unwatchable for me, if you can understand Tamil you are (probably) in for a wonderful filmic experience.

Paruthiveeran
Ameer | India | 2007 | 139min