Naangal movie review: Avinash Prakash’s debut is cathartic, poignant and deeply resonating intimate portrayal of dysfunctional family

3.5/5

Naangal plot

Rajkumar, an ‘educationalist’ (a wonderful Abdul Rafe) lives with his three sons Karthik (Mithun V), Dhruv (Rithik Mohan) and Gautham (Nithin D) with their dog Kathy (Roxy) at an estate in Ooty. The absence of their mother Padma (Prarthana Srikaanth) is starkly visible. Rajkumar tightens grip on his boys that borderlines abuse and authoritative discipline, as dysfunctionality remains the only constant looming over their family.

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Naangal movie review

The idea of home can be deeply personal, at the same time vague and uncharted. Would home mean where familiarity lingers even as unpleasantness galore? What is home for a little human who is at the cusp of knowing the brutality of world, as the child experiences trauma from the limits of domesticity? Debutant director Avinash Prakash’s Naangal, which has had festival run already, wonderfully explores this from the lens of an intimate portrayal with a slow burn take. It never spells out, but at the same time defines the thoughts it wants to linger on. Avinash borrows the Welsh word Hiraeth to best begin his film with; a thought that cannot be best put into words, but the nearest definition goes like ‘a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past’. Naangal is hiraeth that the boys experience despite being under the difficult regime of their father, it is that time and place in their core memory that doesn’t make them leave their present, and it is all those moments they relive from the past, and savour it if at all it happens again.While dysfunctional family stories are common in Indian cinema, like Koogle Kuttappa, Kudumbasthan and Thiruchitrambalam, Naangal takes a non commercial route and the beauty begins there in Avinash's film.

Karthik, Dhruv, and Gautham may be just in their teens, but have already taken the responsibilities of an adult. It is these three boys who run the estate house they live in with their father Rajkumar, who exercises a toxic control over his sons. His threatening voice is enough to make sure one of his sons who cleans the toilet of their house to reduce from 100 to 92% when asked how clean it is. Rajkumar, who has no qualms over smoking and drinking in front of the boys, determines when the children use the toilet, and their waking up at time, i.e. 3.45 am at Brahmamuhurtham. Avinash, who has shot and edited the film as well, do not frame them living claustrophobic at the sprawling mansion that does not have electricity. It is because the space is enough to make them feel controlled and fearful. The space is vast, but their options are strict, making you feel more apathy for the children. But the colour choice that swings from monotone interiors and colourful exteriors is the direct reference to the boys’ lifestyle with and without their father. The empathy is never broken down at Rajkumar’s home, who unleashes his brutality at his whims and fancies. The boys are skinny, and you don’t want to believe they are because it’s the age to play and stay outdoors. Nevertheless, they are. But it is because the mental negligence transcends to their physical form.

Looking back at the title after watching the film, Naangal seems apt and closest to what the family of men experience. The mother makes an appearance, her actions are sporadically resonating, but you don’t search for logic. Humans are mysterious in certain ways and questioning their absurdity might make one feel absurd. It is best to acknowledge their actions without reasoning and Naangal makes you watch the film from that perspective. Avinash crafts a film where moments matter, and actions only contribute in facilitating it. The characters are never attempted to be questioned, but to be dwelled with, much like how the boys co-exist with their father, while having their occasion childishness come out.

Watching Naangal can be deeply resonating, disturbing, nauseating or even oddly comforting, because the house of Rajkumar’s is not one that is a rarity. It is within the parameter of non-judgmentalism you look at them. You wonder how Rajkumar would have been if he had daughter, what if Padma had stay put for the sake of her children, as women are expected to in society even now, or how would the lives of the three boys shape up as they grow. Would it be a villain origin story, or birth of a social outcast and introvert, or even that of a normal person as per societal standards? But Naangal does not make you dwell on the family for long than it wants. It wants you just acknowledge a family exists in this type, and to each one their own.

Naangal verdict

Naangal is extremely cathartic, poignant and deeply resonating intimate portrayal of a dysfunctional family. A film that builds on moments, Avinash Prakash’s debut feature is film that one ought to watch as a learning lesson of empathy.