Poo (2008)

I have a lot of feelings about this film, most of which conflict with each other. On one hand, this is a movie that is a testament to the immense talents of everyone involved in it. On the other, there is a lot that just doesn't sit right with the "love" story- at least for me. While I appreciate how the story shows that self-sacrificial love doesn't necessarily lead to a happy ending, there were several points in the narrative when I just couldn't sit through Maari's (Parvathy, in a stunning Tamil debut) adventures in the name of love. Call it second-hand embarrassment or whatever, but I wish the film had toned some of her devotion down. 

However, like I said, Parvathy does full justice to Maari, and really makes you feel all the despair, longing and unadulterated love and passion her character has for Thangarasu (Srikanth) who is always just agonisingly out of her reach. I loved Srikanth too- he made his character's obliviousness seem natural, a tricky tightrope to walk on because if it looked fake or over the top, the entire movie would have been ruined. The stand-out performance for me, though, was Ram's, who played Thangarasu's father. It was this character that I found most interesting, and it was through his perspective that I found myself most engaged with the movie itself. 

Finally, I just want to say that I appreciate how Poo handles the issue of cousin-marriage, and shows in startlingly clear light the abnormalities and defects children of such unions have to endure. For me, that's the most important message from the film.

PS- fuuuuuck wh*te people, who have successfully managed to ruin the reviews section for this movie on Letterboxd. After the entire history of colonialism, you would expect they'd know a thing or two about cultural differences, but nah. Just have to spread their particular brand of stupidity everywhere.