‘Sembi’ movie review: Prabhu Solomon’s imperfect film has a hopeful story

Kovai Sarala in a nonetheless from ‘Sembi’
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

Filmmaker Prabhu Solomon wastes no time pulling us into the world in Sembi. He makes use of a wonderful music composed by Nivas Ok Prasanna — whose music performs a really pivotal position — to inform us sufficient concerning the world of Sembi, a ten-year-old tribal woman residing along with her grandmother (Kovai Sarala, who is known as ‘ammachi’ by the baby) on a mountaintop in Kodaikanal. The lyrics of that music, Aathi En Mela, written by Prabhu himself, go like this: Neeyae vaanam, neeyae bhoomi, neeyae ulagamadi (You’re my sky, my earth, and my world). Aside from the desolate forestscapes, ammachi and Sembi have solely one another; watching her granddaughter obtain her goals of turning into a physician is the latter’s solely objective in life.

Ammachi teaches Sembi the artwork of harvesting honey with out disturbing the bees, and minutes later, their world will get torn aside; three younger males brutally sexually assault Sembi on the desolate mountaintop. The police get entangled, and we be taught that one of many boys is the son of the opposition chief of the state (Nanjil Sampath). A collection of misfortunate occasions occur, ammachi fights again, and she or he is pressured to flee with Sembi.

Given this data, it’s proper for the viewers to doubt if that is a kind of movies that manipulate their feelings for pay-offs. However Sembi is completely different; Prabhu touches upon a pivotal social concern, and thru a robust story of fine vs evil, he strives to offer hope to the hopeless and highlights the fast want for the emancipation of the silenced communities.

Because the director revealed in an interview with us, he achieves the above by cutting down all of society to a minibus named ‘Anbu’ (which means ‘love’), by which ammachi and Sembi plan to flee the authorities. The numerous new characters contained in the bus are distinct of their philosophies, sensibilities, and politics. After his 2016 movie Thodari, Prabhu as soon as once more makes use of the Pace formulation right here, and Anbu can not cease wherever. The ‘bomb’ right here is the bigger political ploy that’s occurring towards the 2 victims; with state elections inching nearer, the leaders of the opposing events use Sembi’s case to realize votes, and Nanjil’s help plots many schemes to kill off Sembi and ammachi.

With the case getting sensational each minute, the commuters start to speak about its many views, and the very first thing that one realises from these conversations is that this can be a world created by Prabhu Solomon, which doesn’t function like the true one. The characters listed here are largely black-and-white; the criminals on this world are pure evil, and so they even boast about being pedophiles. However this uni-dimensionality doesn’t essentially grow to be a problem provided that the movie makes the intentions of those conversations loud and clear. Sembi reassures us that there’s goodness on this world. And in two of the characters contained in the bus, Prabhu additionally tells us that typically individuals can cross over from the opposite facet.

Ashwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan of Cooku With Comali fame performs a lawyer on board the bus and is likely one of the good ones. Regardless of showing to be a bit caricaturish, his character is important in driving ahead what Prabhu strives to inform. Each time the ignorance of the widespread folks is used towards them, Ashwin’s anonymous character involves the rescue. In a loud ambiance, he’s additionally the observant one who appears on the little issues in life. Now, it might have been nice if the character remained to be the one who ignites the flame of compassion amongst others, however he turns into yet one more saviour hero and this turns into a serious buzzkill.

That is primarily as a result of Sarala, who was terrific till then and who you had been rooting for from the start, takes an entire backseat and Ashwin turns into the frontrunner. The writing too begins to get extra gimmicky, and some scenes right here do take a look at our persistence. Nonetheless, what retains you going is the urgency that’s constantly constructed up, the seemingly-powerful antagonists, and the longing to see if and the way Sembi will get justice.

The movie additionally unnecessarily provides one other layer to the narrative to state that God is the final word saviour. Whereas the intent could be trustworthy, it feels jarring in a movie that had simply instructed a very good story concerning the good in society, and the way individuals will bind collectively to battle evil.

Regardless of all of the fumbles, Prabhu manages to depart you with hope. To the susceptible sections of society, he assures them that they don’t seem to be alone, and to the remainder of us, he asks us to look out for others.

Sembi releases in theatres on December 30