Mandela - A likable satire that hits the right notes!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Movies carrying a social message more often than not tend to take a moral high stand. Filmmakers take the easy route of pointing fingers at others and this works for the audience. Well, everyone likes to assume that they are clean right? This has always been the trick of the trade. Director Madonne Ashwin puts the onus back on the common man. Mandela isn't about looking for heroes or creating heroes. It asks you to look into the mirror in case you are looking for someone.

Satire is probably one of the most difficult genres to explore. A 30 minute spoof might be easy to pull off but a full length feature is a different ball game. There needs to be a plot. And when the tone is on the lighter side, it is a definite challenge to create characters that you care for. This is where Mandela is able to strike a reasonably good balance. While it operates on a lighter vein throughout, it also ensures that the seriousness of the issue at hand never gets diluted.

The one liner of the film (as seen from the trailer) is about two candidates contesting an election, trying to woo a single voter, whose vote is going to decide the winner. But this single vote isn't really what it is on face value. It is a representation of the common voter and the film uses it to speak about the ills plaguing our political system. As I said earlier, the best aspect of Mandela is that it does not take the easy route (also a flawed one) of putting the blame on politicians. The ills of the system start from the individual!

The opening stretch of the film lays out the major evil plaguing our society - caste! There is a literal and visual representation of how caste can get someone in deep shit! Ashwin doesn't delve deep into casteism (in the sense that the film's focal point isn't about the complexities of caste) but Mandela is more about how an individual ( or a society ) is willing to relegate caste to the background when something beneficial (for selfish reasons) needs to be achieved but then shamefully gets back to square one when the job is done.

The biggest takeaway from the film is that it never blames the system. Right through the film, there are enough evidences that the system does keep doing its part to bring a sense of equality. I saw the character played by Sheela Rajkumar as being the reference for the system. She does her part in showing Yogi Babu (the oppressed) the opportunities available. The post office where she works does not have a back- door entrance reserved for the lower caste unlike the houses in the village! I particularly liked how Ashwin takes care to show that Dravidian poltics (the Periyar reference) at its core (the Sangili Murugan character) stands for equality but how it becomes difficult to implement the same during electoral politics due to each one of us. Again, Ashwin ensures that he shows that the problem isn't only with politicians.Vote bank politics around caste thrives because we (the society) are casteists. And cash for votes thrives because we as a society see no shame in being bribed for votes. If an individual can be principled, he can show the middle finger ( and this literally happens on screen) to those trying to exploit him.

Yogi Babu is very good. After Aandavan Kattalai and Pariyerum Perumal, this is a film where he keeps it simple and gets the job done. The scenes of the two candidates trying to woo him through different means did feel like getting repetitive at a point. But again, watching the movie as a television premiere with all those ad breaks can add to this feel.

Bottomline: A pertinent film that ensures that while remaining light hearted, it does not dilute the essence of a very serious issue. Mandela entertains and also puts the onus on each one of us for a better tomorrow.

Rating: 3.25/5