Paradesi (2013 film)

Raasa (Atharvaa) is a carefree young man living in a rural village in the Madras Presidency during the early days of the British Raj. Orphaned at a young age, he is brought up by his grandmother. Angamma (Vedhika), a local girl, falls for him and takes pleasure in bullying him. When she finally confesses her feelings for him, they become intimate and soon reveal the fact that they are in love before the entire village. Angamma's mother objects as Raasa is unemployed and irresponsible, making him undeserving of marrying anyone.

Raasa then goes to the nearby village in search of work. He comes across a friendly Kangani, who then follows Raasa back to his village. The Kangani offers a work for the villagers at the British tea plantations at the hillside. He promises them proper accommodation and high wages. Like many of the villagers, Raasa signs up with the Kangani, hoping that he can send home money every month for his ailing grandmother. Both Angamma and his grandmother are sad to watch him leave.

When Raasa and his villagers finally arrive at the tea plantation, things are not as what the Kangani promised. The Kangani and his henchmen rule the plantation with an iron fist. The British plantation manager does not care for the workers. Raasa becomes friends with Maragadham (Dhansika) and her little daughter, the wife and child of the only worker who have ever escaped the plantation so far. Raasa soon gets a letter from his grandmother stating that Angamma now lives with her after her family found out she is pregnant with his child.

It is soon revealed that all the workers' daily wages go to their food and lodging. Raasa will have to work there for many more months if he wishes to leave the place. Maragadham too has to work for both her time and for her husband's contract. The workers finally realize that they have been made slaves to the British businessmen. Feeling homesick, Raasa tries to escape. Unfortunately, he is caught by the Kangani's henchmen and cuts the left leg main bone (fibula), just like every other worker who had tried to escape and failed.

An epidemic soon kills many workers in the plantation, including one of Raasa's villagers. During a tea party, an English socialite asks the plantation manager to bring in a real doctor to treat the workers. A doctor from Madras in the form of an Indian Christian convert and his English wife come to the plantation. However, rather than treating the sick workers, they spend all their time trying to convert them.

Raasa's time at the plantation draws to an end. Unfortunately, he cannot rejoice as Maragadham becomes ill and finally dies. He then adopts her daughter and awaits his time to leave. However, he is then told that by adopting Maragadham's daughter, he has also inherited both her parents' debt to the plantation and will have to work there for almost 10 more years to pay it all off. As he is lamenting his fate on top of a hill, he notices a new group of slaves being brought in. Among them, he sees Angamma and their son. He runs after them and in tears, tells them that they have both walked into the mouth of hell.

The film ends with a wide shot of the tea plantation and all its workers staring at Rasa crying his heart out.

• Atharvaa as Raasa
• Vedhika as Angamma
• Dhansika as Maragadham
• Dhanalakshmi/Harini as Valli
• Riythvika as Karuthakanni
• Puvisha Manoharan as Elizabeth
• Karthick Ashokan as Thangarasu
• Jerry as Kangaani
• K. Sivasankar as Parisutham
• Kalpana Shree as Angamma's mother

The soundtrack was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar in his first collaboration with Bala and second with Atharvaa. The audio launch and trailer release of the film happened on 25 November 2012 at Sathyam cinemas, Chennai.[30] Vairamuthu joined hands with director Bala for the first time in this film. Prakash Kumar composed the music and Vairamuthu wrote the lyrics based on what has been shot.[31]

On the music, Behindwoods wrote that the instruments used "achieves an undistracted and uniform sound-and-feel throughout this album and it succeeds in placing the listener in the time and place of the story". It gave a rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars.[32]

S Saraswathi of Rediff rated the film 4 stars out of 5, saying "Bala's Paradesi stays with you long after you walk out of the theatre. In fact you need a few minutes to reorient yourself back to the present, Bala captivates with his authentic script, unadorned visuals and down-to-earth characters. A must-watch."[33] Sify said, "Paradesi may be too dark for some viewers. But here is a definitive movie that touches a deep emotional chord and will leave a lump in your throat. Paradesi is definitively a classic with grace and power", going on to call it "brilliant".[34] Shankar Ganesh rated it 4 out of 5 and stated that "Paradesi is dark, gritty and bloody realistic & concluded that it's film-making at its best. A must watch!"[35] IBN Live called the film "pure unadulterated cinema and the screenplay and the plot rank high above everything else" and "a master class in great filmmaking".[36] One India stated, "Paradesi is a brilliant made movie but the lack of commercial elements will not guarantee the success".[37]

The Hindu wrote, "(The) traditional commercial-film elements are an odd fit in a film that's attempting to be something wholly different. Paradesi is an important lesson on a forgotten chapter of history, but as cinema, Bala's truest isn't up there with Bala's best."[38] Nandini Ramnath of Livemint said, "During Paradesi's most heightened moments, it appears as though Bala is single-handedly trying to undo that cinematic legacy" and concluded, "Paradesi clocks a crisp 120 minutes– not enough to replicate the richness of Pithamagan and Avan Ivan, and not enough to accommodate new ideas on age-old forms of exploitation".[1]

The film collected approximately ₹4.86 crore (US$610,000) in Tamil Nadu in first weekend. The film collected ₹16.08 lakh (US$20,000) in UK and ₹22.48 lakh (US$28,000) in United States in first weekend.[39]

Paradesi won the National Film Award for Best Costume Design for designer Poornima Ramaswamy, who worked on her first film.[40] It received nine Filmfare Awards South nominations including Best Tamil Film (Bala) and Best Tamil Actress (Vedhika), and went on to win for Best Tamil Director (Bala), Best Tamil Actor (Atharvaa) and Best Tamil Supporting Actress (Dhansika).[41]

• List of films featuring slavery

• Paradesi at IMDb