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There is a point in the film where he’s putting up his bravest face and gearing up for a fight against the police. As his enemy gets bigger and more powerful, Karnan gets stronger, yet more vulnerable. His journey from being the angry youngster who wants retaliation for everyday injustices to the village leader who simply wants his rights is poignant. Dhanush is fantastic as Karnan, carrying an insatiable rage in his entire being. The best of Karnan is, of course, reserved for the eponymous hero. There is also the village leader who refuses to take down the towel wrapped around his head - a sign of subservience demanded by dominant castes Yogi Babu's character, who is cynical, but comes around a young woman whose college-going dreams are crushed the boy who raises a horse the pregnant woman who stands up for her son Karnan's sister who is both proud and scared the lover who puts up a good fight - Karnan's universe is made of multi-dimensional people, as complex as they're grounded. A widower still crushingly in love - filling heart and soul into Deva's rendition of manjanathi puranam. A pillar of support for Karnan, while also protecting him from the dangers of the latter's own anger. Yaman, played by an enchanting Lal, is the kindly godfather. In spite of bringing together dozens of characters, Selvaraj makes each one of them real. Karnan's biggest success is in the writing. Naturally, this story is much darker, more violent, and gut-wrenching. What would have happened if Pariyan wasn't even allowed to board a bus on the first day of his college? What if Pariyan was denied the very thing he thought of as his ticket to a dignified life? That's the story Selvaraj explores with Karnan. For Pariyan, as long as he could study, the violence is just inevitable irritation. He silently suffers unimaginable violence, standing up for himself in controlled ways. One of my biggest concerns about Pariyerum Perumal was the submissiveness of the protagonist, Pariyan. Mari Selvaraj's sophomore film Karnan is about the village's fight for dignity against a system that's deliberately and cruelly stacked against them.įrom the much smaller and somewhat subdued effort that was his previous film Pariyerum Perumal, Selvaraj takes a giant leap with Karnan, which is more forceful - both in its message and in making. They are forced to use the bus stand in a neighbouring village, where begins the abyss of indignities meted out to them. They don't have a school, a hospital, not even a bus stand, despite having petitioned for it multiple times. Karnan is a young man waiting for a military job in a village that has no mercy from the State (oh, the spirited irony of this!).