Servile and subservient, a certain weakness is a part of the thinking and the body language among Karnan’s seniors.
It’s an in-depth study of character as we witness three different attitudes among the three generations living here. The layers in Karnan will take several readings to uncover. But when even the new police officer brings no relief or respite, the sword has to come right back to this chosen one. He’s grown up as one of the victims of the caste system, so it’s not shocking when he has to deal with caste-based crimes. In the first half, he faces a set of enemies that are at least visible to him. What if the powers of the system too join hands with these forces to further make the village miss its bus again? Karnan’s enemies too take this form. It uses the deep chains of casteism to shackle the people of Podiyankulam. The use of neighbouring bus stops are not an option because the dominant caste will never allow that. What other option does Karnan really have when the weapon of education evades him? The villagers have tried every democratic method to get them this bus stop they’ve appealed to government officers and signed petitions, but the State refuses to acknowledge their existence. Without a bus stop for the village, even the wheels of progress have no time for Podiyankulam. One of Karnan’s neighbours (played by Gouri Kishan) stands to be the first to get a college education, but that’s only if she can get there first. In one of his trials, we witness the devastation it causes another villager when he’s an inch away from getting this ticket to freedom.īut others are not looking for a way out. He’s also been trying to get enrolled in the Army, hoping that it would be his way out.
His entire identity is chained to a place and a caste, and he doesn’t have the option to fight back with a mask on. Even the idea of vigilante justice appears silly to him. When you come from such a place, heroism isn’t really a choice. This sword isn’t the weapon of his choice and our hero Karnan knows this better than we do. If Arthur was the only one in England to pull out the Excalibur from the stone, in Podiyankulam, it’s only Karnan who can sail through the skies (with the sun watching over) to bisect the fish with a sword that fits his body like a limb. At first he appears to be sleeping, oblivious to what’s happening around him. For Karnan (Dhanush), there’s no escaping destiny’s repeated calls demanding his action.
As for their hero, the village proposes a sport that involves the chosen one slicing up a flying fish using a mythical sword.īut the divine cannot be too far removed from a film titled Karnan. There’s no room for divine intervention either because the people believe in a God that remains headless. It’s 1995, but the village appears to be frozen in another time. There are no schools, clinics or bus stops. For outsiders, it’s simply a kaadu, a barren wasteland that deserves no pride nor progress. For one, Podiyankulam only exists in the map of its dwellers.
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