Before the winners of the National Film Awards, 2019 were announced earlier today, there is a high chance that not many Tamil movie viewers would have heard/known about a movie titled Baaram, which is to reiterate a full length feature film and not a documentary / short film. Baaram is directed by Priya Krishnaswamy, is 91 minutes long and is based on true incidents of elderly abuse in rural Tamil Nadu.

“I wanted to bring the little-known practice of Thalaikoothal (traditional practice of senicide or involuntary euthanasia by their own family members) to the foreground of our social discourse,” Priya had said at the time of releasing her film and Baaram went on to be a part of the Indian Panorama section of the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and was also one among the 12 films nominated for the International Council for Film, Television and Audio-Visual Communication (ICFT) UNESCO Gandhi Medal.

The practise of 'Thalaikoothal' first gained mainstream media attention in 2010 when an 80 year old Virudhunagar resident escaped a death trap set by his own, after he eaves-dropped on them. The case had become so prominent that time that Virudhunagar's then Tamil Nadu Elders Welfare Association (TNEWA) president Paul Raj said that the administration has "woken up to the barbaric system of killing the elderly", thanks to the 80 year old's case gaining media attention.

Priya who is said to have read about the practice in 2012, based her film Baaram’s story on the same. The movie was shot in 18 days and it revolves around Karuppasamy, an ageing watchman who meets with an accident breaking his hip. Two weeks later, he dies and at his funeral, an old woman accuses his family of murder suspecting foul play.