Film: Saalaioram
Director: K. Murthy Kannan
Cast: Raj, Sherina, Naseer, Deekshana, Pandiarajan, Singampuli
The plot centers on the roller coaster love affair between a wealthy research student and a conservancy worker. Exploring the lives of conservancy workers who work in subhuman conditions, the film touches on issues like environmental pollution, indiscriminate garbage dumping, the harmful effect of plastics, the need for segregation of waste and waste management. Lofty and sincere may be the intention of the debutant director, but the message gets filtered and diluted in the romance between the lead pair. The screenplay and execution is amateurish, the focus and intensity missing.
Arthi, researching waste management for her project, meets Dharani, a conservancy worker. Mistaking her camaraderie and graciousness for love, Dharani, goaded by his friends, professes his love to her. Its about how Arthi’s project and the love affair progresses. Debutant Raj, with his unkempt looks and rough demeanour, fits the role of Dharani. The other performances are lacklustre.
The early scenes depict the workers’ lives. We see them cleaning clogged drains, collecting garbage and hitting the bottle. Deaths due to occupational hazards and accidental deaths due to open manholes, form a part of the script. In the early part, the director tries to do some justice to the issue he has taken up. The waste dumpyard is often visited with even a song picturised around it.
In the second half, the director loses focus and forces in cliches and formulaic elements. After the initial horror at his proposal, Arthi inevitably falls for the unkempt Dharani. And that happens when she is trapped in a fire and Dharani does the rescue act. A song follows here against the backdrop of the dumpyard. And when Arthi reciprocates, there is a dream-duet, but in a more picturesque ambience. Enters the villain of the piece, the girl’s uncle (Pandiarajan) who wants to sell Arthi’s project to a foreign power for loads of money. He is packed out of the way soon enough.
Politics is weaved in half-heartedly. The entry of the girl’s Singapore-based father seemed another hurdle to the love affair. But the father’s reaction to his daughter’s love affair with a menial worker is surprising. The director here tries to strike away from the expected, by trying to even the class difference between the two. The girl’s father says, “In Singapore, even the ragpickers use cars” — an appreciable stance. But the director seems to chicken out soon enough. He negates the positive element he had introduced, by the finale he opts for. A well-intentioned effort that has gone haywire thanks to its immature take, Saalaioram is at the most a stepping stone for a debutant maker.