A parari or migrant is someone who could only be identified with his or her labour, with every other identity in constant flux. Stripped of their external identities, they are nothing but breadwinners of a family who try to make ends meet. Debut director Ezhil Periyavedi's narration attempts to discard every other division prevailing in society as man-made or artificial while trying to establish the Communist viewpoint that the world is only made up of haves and havenots. He partially succeeds both on the ideological and cinematic fronts.

Parari begins in Tiruvannamalai's Rajapalayam village, with the massive Annamalaiyar Temple bearing witness to the caste strife. From a pig on the loose to the hill that stands between the 'ooru' and 'colony', the village is just one minor run-in from a conflict. For most of the first half, we are shown how the oppressed and the oppressive community interact with each other and how Maaran (Harisankar) tries hard to keep himself from harm. People of both segments of the village work in the farmlands for nine months a year and venture out to neighbouring Karnataka to work in a juice factory for the remaining three months. This is not a character-driven film with a single inciting incident, but a struggle about a few sane voices helplessly trying to stop the worst from happening.

Director Ezhil gives an excellent layout of how Rajapalayam functions. But he goes on to needlessly elaborate to the point of exhaustion. The romance between Maaran and Devaki (Sangeetha Kalyan) seems a stretch even halfway into the film, with nothing substantial coming out of it. With this angle hitting a roadblock with the traumatic childhood memory of Maaran, the purpose of stretching out the romantic portions feels unnecessary.

Director: Ezhil Periyavedi

Cast: Harisankar, Sangeetha Kalyan, Bremnath and Pugazh Mahendran

Even with a theme fertile enough for sermonizing, the film thankfully never does that. Harisankar's Maaran looks more human and believable as the man opposed to casteism. The inhumane practice carries no utility to his life, he is focused on giving his father some rest and a decent life for his teen sister. Maaran is not some idealistic individual. The film works in spaces where Maaran (from the oppressed community) and an elderly Communist (from the oppressive community) try to calm nerves on either side and pitch for unity, reminding them of the fact that, at the end of the day, people of both communities are daily wagers.

Interestingly, the unidimensionality of the antagonists adds to show how caste pride turns them into shallow individuals. There is this moustache-twirling antagonist, Jai (Bremnath), who uses his passion for asserting his caste's dominance as a cover for his negligence towards his debt-ridden family. We see a similar picture in Karnataka, where Jagan (Pugazh Mahendran), takes pride in being a footsoldier to a radical Kannadiga leader, due to which he fails to take care of his widowed mother (her husband dies in a riot supporting the leader). These scenes demonstrate how twisted ideologies turn people into mindless supporters who fail to take care of their families. The scenes in which the two characters are forced to face the harsh reality are arguably the biggest high points in the film. Ezhil also wonderfully demonstrates how even women soft-pedal discrimination, though they mostly stay passive in the male-centric caste divide.

However, the biggest problem in Parari is Ezhil's compromise on the Communist ideology in order to play to the gallery. Parari was in line with the Communist ideals up to a point where the male lead says, "Neeyum coolie naanum coolie, namakkulla enna mela keezha". The film makes an argument that North Indians are taking over the jobs of Tamils, leaving the natives jobless. The argument, irrespective of its validity, runs counter to the Communist idea and discriminates against one set of pararis (or migrant workers). The film also oversimplifies the Cauvery issue by showing how the Hindi-speaking people incited the conflict by becoming Kannada leaders of the pro-Kannada movement, ultimately playing agents of division between Tamils and Kannadigas.

Parari, for a decent amount of its runtime, is stuck to its core ideology of discarding all the man-made divisions. Barring some unhelpful subplots, information overdose, and occasional departure from his political standpoint, director Ezhil Periyavedi has made an impressive debut.