Peranbu Review: A Unique, Heart-touching Movie You Shouldn’t Miss

Director Ram is known for touching sensitive topics and make neat movies out of them.

He chooses topics that are not usually chosen by the mainstream directors, and yet end up delivering intense movies that create a long lasting impact.

And his lead characters are usually imperfect and that alone adds beauty to the script.

Peranbu is Ram’s genuine effort to put forth a delicate relationship between a father and daughter with cerebral palsy.

He has touched various aspects involved in the relationship, and more than how challenging it can be to live with a disability, we also get to see how challenging it is to take care of a spastic person.

Each character in the movie is very carefully developed – there are some negative and positive aspects in every character. There is no one who is a “good all the time” hero, or a “bad all the time” villain.

Ram presents the characters as it is. And you get to visualize the characters as such in their original form that’s so close to reality and emphathize with them.

The movie as a whole deals with a heavy subject, but it is not very disturbing though. You have a few moments of dark comedy to lighten up your mood.

Mammootty plays Amudhavan, the father of a spastic girl who has been avoiding her daughter since birth. His wife has left him for another man, and so he becomes solely responsible for taking care of her daughter.

How he comes to an understanding of her daughter’s challenges, her needs and her sexual transition/needs form the story.

Mammootty shines in his performance. He has played the role very subtly as that’s what is needed for this role. We can easily say that this is the finest performance in his career.

Sadhana plays Paapa, the girl with disability and she has lived the role. She lets us emphatize with her character but not symphathize.

She is so smart in displaying a variety of emotions including anger, happiness, love, hate, sexual desire – all in a brilliant manner.

Anjali Ameer plays a transgender sex worker and has delivered a very fine performance. Her characterization hits us really hard and uniquely dignifies a transgender person.

The film doesn’t judge any of the characters who have their flaws and negative sides. For instance, Amudhavan is somewhat self absorbed and ignores Paapa for a while and takes his own time to begin to understand her needs.

Only when it becomes highly unavoidable, he gets to take care of her.

Amudhavan’s wife cheats on him, but he doesn’t judge her – he understands that she must have her own reasons.

We also don’t get to judge what Meera does, rather we emphathize with her and understand her longing for a normal life.

Theni Easwar has done a remarkable job in quietly displaying the frames. We are taken into the actual locations and even into the feelings of the characters through his frames.

Yuvan Shankar Raja has scored the perfect tunes for the songs as well as the background music. Music helps us bond with the screenplay and with the characters’ emotions.

Overall Peranbu is a must watch – the movie is so unique, real, and has many untold emotions packed in a positive manner.

The movie will help you change certain perceptions about disabled people. It will make you feel grateful for your life as it is much better than that of certain others.