August 16 1947 Review: A promising subject that deserved better screenwriting!

Ashwin Ram

August 16 1947 is a period drama, starring Gautham Karthik in the lead role. The film is directed by NS Ponkumar, a former associate of AR Murugadoss who has produced this film.

Premise:

A village down South that was unaware that India is about to get Independence in the next 3 days, is under the slavery of the terrifying British commanding officer and his rapist son. How were the innocent people finally relieved from danger forms the crux of the story.

Writing/ Direction:

The story is set in a fascinating manner, absorbs straight into the content with the powerful opening 10 minutes sequence. Establishes the situation of the village which is under the control of the evil British men, their pain and what the story is about is neatly introduced. The story arc is solid, apt for the timeline and relatable too because of the patriotic touch. There is excessive drama from various angles, out of which the emotions surrounding Gautham Karthik with her mother and village have worked in the favour of the film. All the other aspects are very usual, it doesn’t have to necessarily be in a period set up, a substance that could happen any day and anywhere. Mainly because of this issue, the story loses its essence and struggles to have any refreshing elements to maintain the momentum created by the prelude. The screenplay engages on and off due to inconsistent writing, a good moment is followed by a couple of tasteless sequences. The flow has no surprises as literally the first half is packed in such a way that we get to see scenes that were explained through animation in the opening credits. Not so promising direction as well, the first filmmaker has extracted exaggerated performances from the foreign artists just to show their cunning nature and the rooted sentiments are spoiled by so much melodrama. Somewhat gets better towards the end, but that doesn’t help much.

Performances:

Gautham Karthik struggles a bit to catch up the period dialogue delivery, however he has given a neat performance. Pugazh gets a challenging character to play and he has done a convincing job especially in the second half. The debut actress Revathi is so apt to play the village next-door girl, but sadly her makeup is badly done which was not apt for the situation the character is stuck in. There are a few memorable characters with a nice nativity touch, the transport labour character is outstanding and a great performance too. Such bad presence by the two main foreign actors, overacting to the core and showing them speaking dialogues in Tamil on-screen without lip sync loses authenticity.

Technicalities:

The technical crew has put in loads of efforts to make it a flick that looks apt to the intended timeline. Satisfactory album by Sean Roldan, with a romantic track standing out. Decent background score that helps a few middling sequences. Appreciable work by the cinematographer, mainly the how originally he has graded the film, man has found a perfect colour tone for the 1940s. Editing could have been better, there is scope to completely cut-off quite a few stretches, can’t deny the fact that film runs way too longer than it actually looks in number. Tremendous set work and production design by art director Santhanam (late), he has given so much life to visuals. Overly violent stunts, a lot of blood-shed and body parts cut into pieces.

Bottomline

With a believable set up and an intriguing storyline, the film could have offered so much more. But the drama is disappointing with usual conflicts, weak arcs and payoffs that don't glitter.

Rating - 2.75/ 5