No wildfire, just a few sparks

HAVE started to avoid watching the original the night before I go for the remake. It taints the experience. As a reviewer, I can't assess the remake as a standalone film.

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

HAVE started to avoid watching the original the night before I go for the remake. It taints the experience. As a reviewer, I can't assess the remake as a standalone film. To prevent the overnight hangover of the original, I watched Pariyerum Perumal earlier in the week. I know, I am guilty of not catching the film when it first came out. But that's not the only guilt I felt while experiencing Mari Selvaraj's poignant telling of a personal tale. The film made all my notions feel hollow. Good art is a mirror to the privileged. Great art makes them afraid of their reflection.

With Dharma Productions' track record (which includes Dhadak (2018)), the expectations from the sequel weren't much. The dilution begins with the film's opening quote: 'When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty,' a line by United States' third president Thomas Jefferson. A rousing quote, but still cushy when you compare it to Pariyerum Perumal's opening words against a black screen: 'Caste and religion are against humanity.' It's unflinching, raw and out there. But I guess I understand. While the Mari Selvaraj directorial passed with a U certificate, Dhadak 2 went through 16 cuts of the CBFC scissor. Massy-er the medium, minimal the mutiny.