Arimapatti Sakthivel Movie Review: A soapy social drama lacking deftness in storytelling

In Ramesh Kandhasamy’s Arimapatti Sakthivel, Sakthivel (Pavan) wants to be a filmmaker. His ambition is such that he even works in a pastry shop to make ends meet while taking up a short project. However, he soon realises that, like a commercial film, his life is also a rollercoaster, such that he has to leave his short film, midway through the shoot, to take care of a personal issue.

Director: Ramesh Kandhasamy

Cast: Pavan K, Charle, Meghana Ellen, Imman Annachi

Arimapatti Sakthivel begins with a village council meeting where a young couple faces a trial for intercaste marriage. The council heads tell them and the villagers that they usually mete out punishment for such an act but that they are letting them go with a warning this time. Some villagers express their displeasure at the council’s decision and tell the couple that they brought shame to the village. Soon, a gang invades the couple's house at night and kills them.

The couple is not part of the main story, but with this sequence alone, director Ramesh and his writer Pavan K, show the despicable conventions that exist in the village. Then Ramesh cuts to the secret wedding of the film’s two main leads, Sakthivel (Pavan K) and Kavitha (Meghana Ellen). Pavan and Kavitha elope, tie the knot at a temple, and register their marriage. But soon, it causes problems in Sakthivel’s village and chaos in Kavitha’s family. The girl’s brothers hate the fact that she decided to marry a boy from a lower-caste family. On the other hand, the people in the boy’s village dislike how he broke their customs, and they choose to humiliate his family, especially his father, Kuzhandhaivel (Charle), in the council meeting. The rest of the film revolves around how the principal characters deal with their predicament.

Arimapatti Sakthivel makes serious commentaries about societal norms concerning class and caste, and its relevance is undeniable, even in this day and age. Many will find the central events in the film relatable, no matter where they are from. In fact, Arimapatti Sakthivel is based on a true story, which we only realise as the end credits roll up. However, it is hard to root for its story or characters as the film is full of broad strokes and is treated like a soapy affair. It plays itself out like a long TV serial, with some good songs in between.

The director spends so much time cutting back and forth between his two main leads and the goings-on in their respective families. He spends too long showing exactly how the village council heads give out punishment to those who break their norms. And because the film so frequently shifts itself from the private lives of Sakthivel and Kavitha to the plight of their families, it only loses its focus. There is a flashback sequence that shows how the couple falls in love, but at least that is understandable because it is necessary to establish the relationship of the lead characters. You cannot say the same about the tonally jarring flashback sequence showing the events in the village in elaborate detail.

At some point in Arimapatti Sakthivel, Charle’s character tells his son to pursue his filmmaking and storytelling ambitions and give his love life a skip. As the film started to transition from a social drama into an actioner, I wished that Sakthivel had heeded his father's piece of advice.