Nooru Saami Movie Review:
Sacrifice. Every relationship is gauged by the compromises and sacrifices people make. More than the love shared, the hate espoused, the money spent, the resources exhausted, it is sacrifices that are showcased and remembered. And if Tamil cinema has taught us anything in its more than 100-year-old history, it is that a mother's sacrifice is paramount.
Director Sasi's latest film, Nooru Saami, takes on the responsibility of not just placing the mother on a pedestal, visually representing every iota of her sacrifice, but also asserting that it was all done by a mere mortal, not a divine being, as is often proclaimed. How do you bring a mother down from the pedestal and say that she is a biological being with physical desires? Yes, technically we know how babies are born, but our 'culture' prohibits the concept of both sex before marriage, and sex after the couple has reached the socially acceptable number of kids in a family. It is in such a world that Sasi asks a very important question: Shouldn't a woman be more than just a mother?
Director: Sasi
Cast: Swasika, Ajay Dhishan, Shakthi, Vijay Antony
Nooru Saami's protagonist, Selvi (A wonderful Swasika), is caught between her loneliness and the need to be a "model mother". Selvi doesn't really have a village to raise her two children after the demise of her husband. Director Sasi wonderfully uses a ceiling fan as a motif for Selvi's dead husband. Considering how we aren't really told how he passed away, did he hang himself to death on that fan? And does Selvi see it as the last spot where her husband was alive? Sasi doesn't dwell on the despair of it all, and just shows it as her companion and asks you to move on. She has two additional crutches in the form of her sons, Bhaskar (Ajay Dhishan) and Vivek (Shakthi). They are her lifeline, but just like every other son, these boys don't exactly need their mother when they become men. Once again, Sasi doesn't dwell on this aspect of parenting for long and moves past it, as Nooru Saami is quite pragmatic despite the heavy melodrama in the title. Probably why the film doesn't really spend time cementing the equation between Selvi and her sons. Why should a film waste scenes in telling that a mother loves her sons? You just know it, right?
Unfortunately, this smartness isn't really seen in a few other parts of the film that get a bit testing. The heightened tension in the opening scenes doesn't really give the same high when it is resolved. There are a few tonal inconsistencies, sometimes, within the same scene. For example, in a conversation featuring Selvi, her sons, and her brother (Karunaas), what starts as a comedy becomes a serious scene without any breathing room, bogged down by coercive, manipulative music that leaves you exhausted trying to keep up with the emotional rollercoaster. Again, the sentiment isn't the issue, because when you walk into a Sasi film, you know sensitivity and sentimentality are a given. But the way the scenes traverse between these emotions doesn't allow you to reflect on the character's machinations.
Nevertheless, Nooru Saami is firmly Selvi's story, and the film is in steady territory when it paints a stark picture of her dreaded reality. Apart from a random conversation with her sons' primary school teacher (Aruldoss), we don't see her lament even once to anyone. Does she have friends? Does she have anyone who will just sit next to her to listen to what happens in a day? As they say, loneliness is a pandemic, and Swasika wonderfully encapsulates the crushing pain of being alone. Sasi builds these scenes beautifully as he shows how society finds its own way to keep a woman caged, giving it the illusion of it being her own choice. While it is understandable that some scenes have to be pronounced, Nooru Saami actually revels in its subtlety. But Sasi's decision to be doubly sure that every emotion is driven home feels like overkill. Say, for instance, the scene where Selvi broaches the idea of her remarriage to her college-going elder son, Bhaskar. Her plea, his response, the venom in his words, and the pain in her eyes were already on point. But the film goes on to break into a pathos number, and through the song, we also see Bhaskar go through a gamut of emotions. Now, this plays out all wrong for several reasons, including a cameo by Lijomol Jose that doesn't quite make sense. Of course, she delivers an impactful sermon later, but the character feels like a stretch. Similarly, Ajay improves as the film progresses, but he doesn't effectively carry the emotional heft his performance demands. Shakthi's role gets overshadowed by his mother and brother, but he does well in his character turn and in the romantic portions.
However, it is Swasika who holds the entire film together. She gets even the melodrama right, which is an achievement, especially since Sasi tends to get all over the place on this aspect. Just as her shoulders begin to droop under the weight of the film's expectations, Vijay Antony walks in like a breeze, playing a good-natured man who yearns for company. His Ezhumalai is an extended cameo, but it comes in like a whiff of fresh air to a story that was just starting to get stifling. The meet-cute between Ezhumalai and Selvi is such a beautifully written scene that it makes you realise that questions of logic are left behind when the emotions are conveyed so effortlessly. While society at large is portrayed as the antagonist of the film, Balaji Sakthivel embodies that evil voice, and he has a lot of fun, especially when Jenson Diwakar's character asks him if he knows anything about 'Kadhal' (love). These are nifty little touches in a film that could have benefitted from more such one-liners. Also, Sasi doesn't overplay his hand in the film, despite bearing it all in the first act. There are also interesting narrative choices that Sasi makes, especially with the way he uses the voice-overs. While these choices don't always work, points to Sasi for trying to colour outside the lines.
It is in the film's final stretch that Nooru Saami becomes a solid drama. All the issues the film had touched upon superficially until then find a fulfilling resolution. Sasi drills down the idea that societal change has to begin at home, but it doesn't mean that people should put their lives on hold till the change starts to show in society. This is a very important distinction that Nooru Saami champions. The film constantly puts society under the scanner and shows how tough it is for a single woman in a world that conveniently sees her as a mother when required, and an 'available woman' during other times. Let's zero back to the best dialogue of the film, which is a 2-3 minute monologue by Selvi about why she is contemplating remarriage. After she finishes her heartfelt speech, the teacher says, "If someone asks a man if he wants to remarry, he would just say a simple 'Yes'... and here you are, having to explain so much..." Nooru Saami is the film version of that dialogue. Widow remarriage shouldn't have to be this complicated, but as long as sections of society look down upon it and deprive women of agency, you can sacrifice subtlety and have hundreds of Nooru Saami's to drive home the point.
