‘August 16, 1947’ movie review: Insipid screenplay kills an intriguing freedom struggle story – The Hindu

In August 16, 1947, debutant director NS Ponkumar desires you to assume rather a lot out of your coronary heart. He’s assured in how his screenplay’s emotional beats transfer and engages you and that confidence stems from the spectacular baseline he has: In 1947, when communication wasn’t superior and also you couldn’t make films on TikTok, the information of India’s independence from the colonial authorities might need had some delays in reaching each nook and nook of such an unlimited nation, and that’s what occurred on August 14 to Sengadu, a village in Southern Tamil Nadu sandwiched by mighty mountains and snarly woods. The village is thought for its high-quality cotton yield that’s hand-made by the villagers who’re handled as slaves by British Common Robert Clive (Richard Ashton). This towering animal is outwardly one of many officers who suggested Common Dyre to bloodbath 1000’s at Jallianwala Bagh, after which he was despatched to Sengadu on punishment obligation. Mainly, he’s an animal that feasts on worry and flesh, and Sengadu is his land of slaves.

You pause to drink water, and you’re whipped. Wish to take a leak? Do not forget that the whip has spikes. If you happen to get harm whereas working, you’re gifted with extra ache as drugs; for worse or higher, you typically catch a fast bullet from Robert. To make issues worse, the villagers should disguise their daughters or kill them to forestall Robert’s pervert son Justin (Jason Shah) from laying his arms on them — as sinister as his father, he even makes use of the statue of the villager’s deity for bodily pleasure. On the day earlier than independence, all makes an attempt by the British to tell Robert of the information and summon him for a high-level assembly fail as the one phone in his property is beneath restore. The lads who had been assigned to bodily ship the message get killed by a tiger. However even when the information reaches Robert, it’s futile, as we be taught ultimately, as the person desires his ‘slaves’ to recollect the worry of the British till they reside.

If you happen to get flashes of a Django Unchained or a Lagaan, it’s as a result of that is an intriguing storyline filled with potential, and it will get massacred slowly over two hours. Mainly, NS Ponkumar is hell-bent on spoon-feeding — no, drowning — us with melodrama and repeated shows of baseless brutality to take advantage of each drop of emotion out of us. From the start, when Robert’s monstrosity is repeatedly established, Ponkumar prolongs and stretches every thing he desires to inform and do.

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Melodrama can nonetheless work if staged and executed properly, and I say this as a result of the core of August 16, 1947 does have a robust emotional pulse. It’s a love story between a younger orphan Paraman (Gautham Karthik) and Thenmozhi (Revathy Sharma), the daughter of Sengadu’s Zamindar who, in worry of Justin, has locked her up inside his bungalow for years after telling the villagers that she died of a illness as a baby. And the roots of Paraman, what he means to the village and the way that ties as much as Thenmozhi are all beautiful concepts. However at common intervals, like a weird flashback scene in a hut that makes you roll your eyes, one thing or the opposite retains asking you to not take this movie severely.

Including Justin into the combination, the love story ought to have appeared extra gripping, however what follows is extra predictable that something one can think about. At each level, you’re met with a cliche flip of occasions or an infuriating motion by a personality. I imply, Thenmozhi, hiding from the lads of her father, shakes a leg in the course of the road throughout an pointless track. The way in which some behave within the presence of the antagonists could make you eat the rubber of your seats.

The movie by no means redeems itself from these points and that’s the most important drawback with August 16, 1947: the liberty combat that’s meant to be the very objective of this story is nothing however the results of one man’s superb clarion name of a speech, and the plan of action that they do isn’t intelligent sufficient both. Making issues worse is how even Robert finally ends up being a caricaturish dull-witted villain. The story could be set in 1947 however the audiences are in 2023!

It’s a no brainer that August 16, 1947 would have appeared like next-big-hit on paper. However the abysmal execution and modifying fail the fabric and go away nothing memorable. You solely want somebody advised the crew that they don’t should shoot every thing written or retain every thing that’s shot.

August 16, 1947 is presently operating in theatres

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