Director: Jacques Audiard
Language: Tamil-French-English
For the Tigers of Ealam, the war never stopped despite defeat looming large. So when Dheepan says that it’s all over for him, he’s slapped, kicked and cursed by his comrade who came looking for him, while he was trying to make a living in France.
Set against the backdrop of the civil war in Sri Lanka, the aftermath of which saw thousands of LTTE cadres migrate to other countries, Dheepan is the story of the title character, who is determined to let go of the past and survive.
The film that took home the Palme d’Or from Cannes Film Festival has been featured in World Cinema category in IFFK.
Three afflicted Sri Lankan Tamilians come together and pretend to be a family to flee the country and claim asylum in Europe — Dheepan, Yazhini and 9-year-old Illayaal.
In France, after trying out odd jobs, Dheepan takes up the job of the caretaker of a bunch of housing blocks in the suburbs. He’s quiet, tranquillity personified and has an unbeatable survival instinct.
Yazhini is apprehensive, closed in, and had her heart set on getting to England to be with her relatives. To top that, when violence starts to boom on the streets of France, thanks to the local thugs/gansters/drug-peddlers, she finds it suffocating. Illayaal grows fond of her new-found family, but there’s a rift she is not able to bridge with Yazhini.
With chaos on the streets where they live going out of hands, Dheepan’s warrior instincts resurface. For all his calmness, he was a commanding Tiger, who forsake the war when he lost his family to it. It was the resilience of the fighter who had seen and suffered much more than gangster wars. And now, in the face of protecting his new family, would old habits be revoked? It almost feels like ‘an old jungle saying’—the Phantom has the strength of ten tigers! Yes, it does edge towards some very typical cinematic action sequences, yet not compromising on the tone that it started out with.
Jesuthasan Antonythasan as Dheepan is astonishingly good; the quiver he carries like second nature is affective. Kalieaswari Srinivasan as the spirited Yazhini and Claudine Vinasithamby as the intuitive Illayaal are effortless performers.
Dheepan deftly weaves political unrest, personal conflicts and immigrant tension all into one fabric and seldom gives in to hyperboles. With free-flowing Tamizh, intermittent French and a touch of English, the film, in a lighter vein, addresses the confluence of disparate languages as well.
Star factors:
The splendid performances
The background score fits in well and makes for a brilliant merge of classical tones with others
Special thanks to the team for adding ‘Nila athu vanathu mele’ from Nayagan for a few fleeting minutes!