Laabam has good intentions but messy storytelling

The late SP Jhananathan was a filmmaker who noticed movies as a way to propagate his ideology. Naturally, there was greater than a whiff of preachiness in his movies. Laabam is not any exception. The movie is an outcry in opposition to capitalism, about how the greed to make earnings results in making selections that appear good within the quick time period, however are literally long-term disasters for each the folks and the planet.

His protagonist is Pakkiri (Vijay Sethupathi), the farmers’ affiliation president of Peruvayal, who needs to reclaim Panchami land that has been usurped by the landlords, give it again to the widespread man and use it for a neighborhood farming initiative that may profit all of the farmers of the village. However the large shot of the place, Vanangamudi (Jagapathi Babu, typecast for the hundredth time as a grasping capitalist) has different plans. He needs to begin a bio-diesel challenge that may fetch him billions. And with the police and politicians in his pocket, Vanangamudi would go to any extent to make sure that his plan succeeds.

Laabam is what one may name a movie with good intentions, however are honourable intentions sufficient to make us care a couple of movie? It relies on how a lot of the lecturing you possibly can abdomen. That is the type of film the place the protagonist is characterised as somebody who appears to know all the things and is actually known as a God by his folks. Right here, Vijay Sethupathi — whose look retains altering from one scene to the subsequent — explains the idea of revenue by a loaf of bread (a la Vijay, who gave a communism for dummies line with an idli), particulars the methods wherein sugarcane will get transformed into so many merchandise and rues how the sugarcane farmer nonetheless stays poor, narrates the historical past and politics behind land possession, and so forth and so forth. Sure, these are informative moments, however in relation to storytelling, they will solely be described as data dump.

The movie’s narrative is sort of fractured. Fairly than shifting from one incident to the opposite, right here, it strikes from one problem to the opposite at a speedy tempo giving us a false sense of momentum. The characters, too, are both painted in broad strokes. Pakkiri is alleged to be a Fakir-like particular person with worldly information having travelled far and huge, and so, we’re requested to contemplate no matter he says as proper. He has a gang of associates, however not a single one is written memorably. The likes of Kalaiyarasan and Sai Dhanshika are wasted in insignificant roles. As for Vanangamudi, he does all of the cliched issues that wealthy villains in movie do — personal a palatial bungalow, have ladies who service him at his beck and name, has a corrupt cop by his facet completely… effectively, you already know the remaining! Then, we even have a compulsory feminine lead. That is Clara (Shruti Haasan), a performer. The much less stated about Clara’s significance to the plot the higher. We even get a perfunctory romantic monitor between her and Pakkiri, which is fortunately deserted as shortly as it’s introduced into the plot.

Provided that Jhananthan is not any extra, it’s laborious to determine how a lot of this messy storytelling is because of his loss of life. The director had shot the movie, however had handed away in the course of the enhancing, along with his assistants finishing the post-production. However it’s tragic that Laabam will stay this filmmaker’s remaining movie.