Laabam Movie Review
There are very few filmmakers, who create a ‘Universe’ and significantly expand their fan base for their valuable content. Director SP Jhananathan is one among the league, whose protagonists have never fell victims to an overdose of commercial treatments. They have been natural; someone you could spot in your neighborhood inclined to strong ideologies, which if implemented or practiced would elevate the stature of the unprivileged. More than all, his protagonists have been ‘SOCIALISTS’, the voice and reflection of many in today’s society. Regrettably, he is no more with us, and luckily, he has endowed us with a piece of work ‘Laabam’, which keeps his thought-provoking ignitions, prevail.
Set against the backdrops of a village in Tamil Nadu, we come across the arrival of a weird religious mendicant. In simple words, a Pakkiri (Vijay Sethupathi) arrives and makes a promise to farmers out there that he would transform their mediocre agricultural business into a profitable one (Significance of the film’s title). Practically, he exposes the barricades that hinder the growth of farmers, and sooner, makes their livelihood, a profitable venture. Eventually, this lands him on the bad pages of the fraudulent syndicate group resulting in a tug of war.
As cited above, S.P. Jananathan movies stand out to be unique in various aspects. One among them is the ‘FACT’. He isn’t someone, who writes heroic dialogues for the protagonist with the lame intention of getting claps in theaters. His hard-hitting dialogues always have a strong groundwork and research lying beneath. Laabam is no exception. Say, for instance, there have been many movies that are made on the agricultural crisis, where the hero utters few dialogues, just for the sake of gaining applause. Whereas with Laabam, the scenario is completely different as we are exposed to the big opportunities in the field of agriculture, which can make the farmers profitable. The dialogues involving Panchami Nilam, Kuttu Panna, are something new to this generation.
When it comes to performance, we do spot some differences in the performance of Vijay Sethupathi, when compared to his erstwhile movies. The inputs of S.P. Jananathan have influenced VJS a lot. Shruthi Haasan gets a decent role in this movie. Jagapathy Babu’s character is no different from the routine corporate baddies. On the technical aspect, there isn’t anything really huge to mention. Since, the plot and dialogues dominate the show; we don’t get to notice the technical aspects. However, the songs could have been better.
If you’re looking out for minuses in the film, there aren’t many to spot. While the first half proceeds with lots of promising sequences, the post-intermission episodes might slightly create an impression of regular tug of war between hero and the baddies as in the commercial movie genre. However, this doesn’t obstruct the progression of the movie anywhere. For the lovers of S.P. Jananathan, a special ode to him by the final credits will have an emotional impact.
P.S. We are avoiding the ratings and verdict as an ode to the critically acclaimed filmmaker S.P. Jananathan as a token of respect.
