My Lord movie review: Sasikumar film is a sincere social commentary that lingers too long on its goodness

My Lord movie plot:

In Chennai, a central minister (Asha Sarath) is battling for life after both her kidneys fail. Her family and staff find a donor apt for her in Kovilpatti’s Muthusippy (Sasikumar) as they coax him into donating one of his kidneys. In the process, Muthusippy makes one request: that he wants to get a ration card for himself and his wife Susila (Chaithra J Achar). But when the couple are already pronounced dead as per government records, it leads to a chain of events exploring themes of identity, survival, power, and corruption in society.

My Lord movie review:

There is something very interesting about My Lord, that being it swings between being a political satire and an emotional drama. In some honest sense, it wants to have some comedy like Mandela, to take someone from the fringes of society whose identity hangs by a thread and at the mercy of the affluent ready to do anything to exploit them. In another sense, My Lord is a Nandhan as well, about how much the cinematic expression of systematic corruption and power dynamics can make a story more of a stark mirror that reflects reality, even as it might get uncomfortable to watch. My Lord shuttles back and forth between these two emotions from time to time, that for all the goodness it has, it dwells on it a little too much, just to show that kindness lies in sacrifice and that the poor must show it.

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My Lord begins with what looks like a fight for survival and identity. Muthusippy fights for justice, and why he along with his wife are declared dead as per government orders remains in the dark for a while. Susila, who was brought up in a shelter for women, works for a matchstick factory and has got only one wish: to get married, take a ration card as a couple, and pin it in her shelter as a reminder that she has now got a family. So naturally, when Susila and Muthusippy get wedded, the conflict rises from there, and the story wants to make Susila’s anaemic condition the start of the medical obstacles that the couple face. Through a series of exploitation, Susila and Muthusippy are identified as ‘dead’ people. Muthusippy, being the innocent man that he is (Sasikumar in his nth avatar as a symbol of purity), finds a solution in a man who comes in search of his kidney for the minister’s transplantation. He agrees, on the condition that Muthusippy and Susila get a ration card. This sets off a chain of events that My Lord goes back and forth on, exploring the illegal organ transplant racket, poverty exploitation, and organised political agenda driven by power and money that Raju Murugan sets out to explain.

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For most parts, Raju Murugan wants to talk about the politics of power dynamics and the increasing divide between the rich and poor. The tone constantly shifts between being a comedy and a serious drama. But Muthusippy’s innocence is not enough to sell, since the constant shift only settles oddly. Even as Chaithra’s Susila comes off as strong and independent, her role’s limited presence in the second half is also a potential that could have been explored more. Throughout the film, My Lord presents the two sides: the extremely good ones and the extremely bad ones, and the middlemen are just doing their jobs of servicing the rich and chasing after the poor to exploit them. Not that this behaviour does not exist in society, but when Muthusippy takes a climatic decision, it only reiterates that the poor are always the ones who have to be good-doers. The problem comes with the piousness, the higher pedestal that heroes need to be put on; that only by doing divine sacrifices can they qualify as a protagonist. And in doing so, the humanness in them is no longer present; by being flawless. So, they are either angels of the highest order marked by their purity or just pure evil devils. And naturally, when the extremes are evoked, the humans are nowhere to be found.

My Lord movie review:

My Lord settles in an oddly confusing position while trying to be both a social commentary and a cinematic campaign to instil kindness among humans. It dwells on its goodness far too long than needed. Nevertheless, a heart-in-the-right-place film backed with some interesting characters and ideas, My Lord is strengthened by good performances from Sasikumar, Chaithra Achar, and the cast. An earnest storytelling that needed more emotional (read: not sympathetic) depth.