"Introduction of sex education in schools: Interview with the cross-section of the public." An Assistant Station Director of Doordarshan asks his journalist to cover the subject. The ASD is VK Ramasamy and the journalist is played by Mohan ('mic' fame). The year was 1987. Rettai Vaal Kuruvi. Almost three decades after the adult comedy by Balu Mahendra the issue is still hot and happening in the Tamil society as well as its prime medium - cinema. Kuttram Kadithal ('The Punishment') has won the National Award for the Best film in Tamil recently. It follows the Kaaka Muttai model, which is about planning the theatrical release after a movie does a festival circuit and/or wins some handsome awards. The philosophy: make a semi-arthouse movie with near zero budget, showcase to the world, publicise the accolades and then go about fixing a release date - and whatever you get after that directly goes to your pocket. Kuttram was the only Tamil movie selected under Indian Panorama at the IFFI, Goa, 2014. By the way out of the 26 films selected, seven were Malayalam, and seven were Marathi.
In the 1987 movie the interviews that span across a spectrum of people are presented in such a way to broadly give a thumbs up for sex education in schools. But in this latest outing on the highly debated subject you never can really make out what the film stands for. Perhaps it has got to do with the subject itself which does not readily align itself with black or white. But more than that the problem remains unresolved in this movie as it also tries to attend to another evergreen issue of corporal punishment in schools. The movie revolves round the incidents that are set off after a fifth grade kid collapses instantaneously after a teacher's slap. Aspects of religion, love, child behaviour, forgiveness, state, guilt, compassion, etc. are fitted painstakingly, with an extra dose of red, in the overall canvas to create a hard-hitting movie where even the characters who are out-of-focus excel in their performance.
Kutram evolves gradually and you take some time to get adjusted to the long sequences devoid of much humour. Once you are in sync with the heart of the movie you start wondering why there are not many such movies being made. With some amazing shots by cinematographer Manikandan, soulful songs and score by Shankar Rengarajan, and a stellar show by the lead artists - Radhika Prasidhha, Pavel, Uayakumar, master Ajay - the movie does not display any sign of compromise in the craft. Bharathiar's famous song (chinannchiru kiliye..) is intelligently placed in the movie; and its picturisation is just awesome with some really deeply connecting montages that breathe more life into the movie.
But somewhere towards the end the movie takes a melodramatic twist and the vital question it raises remain unanswered conclusively. The teacher comes forward and announces it was wrong of her to hit a child, but the education officer crisply puts that it calls for physical punishment to discipline a child. People with kids can empathise with that! And if you take a look at the other issue of sex education in schools, the way things happen make you wonder - was the education required for the children or in fact for the teacher herself? What is the sense a teacher should make when a fifth grader tells her 'On your birthday I will kiss you!'? How should a teacher react? These areas leave you puzzled, but that is possibly because the movie just wants to flag the issues and not address them. Or is it really so?
In Anjali (1990), there is a series of naughty sequences with a noisy group of kids like - a little boy kissing an equally little a girl mischievously, a kid trying to propose to a girl secretly, and a group of kids impishly asking an old man - 'How are children born?' - that soon breaks into a peppy number. In the past twenty five years, perhaps the actual Tamil milieu has not changed much outside director Mani Ratnam's vision. The real (off screen) society is still grappling with the issues like sex education, required level of interaction between boys-girls, etc. But that is no fault of Bramma G., the director of Kuttram. He has done justice to his work; and pretty seriously too. The two hours are worth it. However, do no expect to watch a classic.
