Aathiran Banumathi is an ace athlete from an oppressed background. He sets records in the 200 metres run, but when his efforts are overlooked by sporting bodies and he is not allowed to participate in the Commonwealth Games, Aathiran decides to fight it out in court. The plight of athletes from underprivileged backgrounds, especially those who do not play glamorous sports like cricket, is a valuable subject. But Thenpathiyan and his team are more interested in presenting all the facts and research they have done rather than crafting an engaging screenplay with characters who draw us in. The result is yet another drama whose only strength is that it has a good message. That’s the short review. A detailed analysis follows, and it may contain spoilers.
KJR makes his debut as a runner named Aathiran Banumathi. The last name comes not from his father but his mother, played by Rama. After the death of her husband, she got a job as a sanitation worker, clearing waste from streets and emptying garbage bins. If the work is bad, the working environment is worse. When she complains about arrears, her supervisor snaps at her and assigns her to night duty. That is how she raised Aathiran and his sister, and taking her name is Aathiran’s tribute to the woman. One of the best scenes in Angikaaram comes after Aathiran suffers a hamstring injury after a race and is laid up at home. A friend is trying to lift him and take him outside because he wants to relieve himself. It’s a one-room house. There’s no bathroom. Aathiran’s mother walks in and orders the friend to stop. She says Aathiran can relieve himself in a corner of the house. She says, “I gather up everyone else’s shit. Can’t I do this for my own son!”
The line stings, and so does the premise of the film. As the title suggests, Aathiran wants angikaaram, acceptance. He thinks that winning medals at the national level and at the Commonwealth Games will finally help him and his family gain that acceptance. But he faces discrimination everywhere. For instance, unlike privileged athletes, he has access only to mud grounds when they practise on synthetic grounds. At home, his family has to survive with the two pots of water from a corporation lorry, while these synthetic grounds have sprinkler systems that keep them watered from morning to night. Through all this, Aathiran keeps quiet. He speaks up. He asks for what he thinks he is owed. But that’s it. But when he injures himself and the sports bodies won’t consider him for participation in the Commonwealth Games, something snaps. Aathiran has done extensive physiotherapy and he can run like he used to. But the men in power are not convinced. And he decides to fight them in court.
It’s a terrific premise, but it deserved a better movie. At the end, we get a card that says “a statement by Thenpathiyan”. That’s what Angikaaram is. It’s a bunch of facts and figures. It’s research, and this research is not shaped into a convincing screenplay with convincing performances. Aathiran is a one-note character. He is a sportsman, yes. But does he think of taking up a part-time job so that his mother does not have to shoulder the entire burden of the family? Does he have romantic feelings for anyone? What purpose does his sister serve in this story? These do not have to be subplots. They just have to be tangents that make Aathiran a three-dimensional man and not just a spokesperson for the film’s themes. In court, there’s a scene where the camera changes focus from Aathiran to the picture of BR Ambedkar behind him. But symbolism cannot be a substitute for a script.
Not just Aathiran, everyone’s a cardboard cutout. The opposing lawyer appears to be a Brahmin who – in court – calls oppressed people “idhunga” instead of “ivanga”. The sports minister knows how many wine shops there are in Tamil Nadu, but not how many playgrounds there are. A selector is revealed to be a sexual predator, and is taken into custody the minute a woman accuses him. (If only it were that easy!) We just have to look at Mari Selvaraj’s Bison to see how a sports-based film that speaks about oppression can also be a piece of beautifully crafted cinema that takes us into its world. In Angikaaram, we are kept at a distance, like in a classroom where a teacher is reciting a few lessons. At one point, Aathiran begins to talk about all kinds of sporting issues, including the fact that cricket has become a kind of drug for the youth. With a little more focus, the main problem that Aathiran faces and the big stretch of melodrama at the end would have hit us with some impact. Angikaaram wants to say a lot, but it ends up as one of those films with a good message and little else.
