“The heart that consumes the venom of anger becomes the forest blaze that destroys everything.”
Anger manifests itself in multiple ways -- hostility, aggression and cold anger. Arvind Swami's Roudhram beautifully captures the various manifestations of anger with a flawless screenplay and seamless story line.
The story of this episode of Netflix's Tamil anthology film Navarasa, which is created by Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan, begins with a young angry teenager Arul (Sreeram) striking a heavy blow on the head of local moneylender Ganesan. Arul's bright red bellowing face screams of vendetta. But he refuses to divulge the reason for his anger to the cops.
A sequence of shots at the police station follows. A young lady cop, played by Rythwika, is furious with her colleagues for failing to extract a confession from the accused.
The story travels back and forth. In a flashback, Arul is shown with his mother and sister. After being abandoned by their father, the family struggles to pay their dues.
While his little sister Anbu hopes to break free from the clutches of poverty and patriarchy with good education, Arul hopes to pursue a future in sports.
The tale of their woes and struggle to break free from the financial desperation is the crux of the story.
Santhosh Sivan's camerawork and AR Rahman's music set the mood for the movie, effortlessly navigating through the shades of red on screen.
The drone shots of the town and the subtle red hues infused through out the film in each frame -- the red salmon, the night light and the dimly lit corner of the police station set the tone for Roudhram.
The cast ensemble is indubitably spectacular. Apart from the spectacular performance by Sreeram, Abhinaya Sri playing little Anbu, Geeta Kailasam playing Chitrama, and Alagam Perumal playing Ganesan do justice to their roles.
Arvind Swami's direction coupled with dialogues by Madhan Karky and Selva make the 35-minute episode an intriguing watch.