Ka Pe Ranasingam Review: Director P Virumaandi’s debut film ‘Ka Pae Ranasingam’ is set in a small village, which is struggling for water, in Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu. Ariyanachi’s (Aishwarya Rajessh) father hires Ranasingam (Vijay Sethupathi), a local activist and water diviner, to find water on his land to start farming his land. It is then that love blossoms between the two and they get married. Ranasingam goes to Dubai for work and is shot dead in a local riot. The news shatters Ariyanachi and their families and she starts to desperately try to bring his body back to India. As the story proceeds, the director shows us who Ranasingam actually was and what he hoped to do for the people of his village.
This political drama is an Aishwarya Rajessh show all the way and the talented actress has carried the film on her shoulders with aplomb. Whether it is the way she delivers her dialogues or the way she carries herself through the diverse scenes, the actress proves that characters that give her scope to perform are what she is best at. She is very convincing as Ariyanachi and you become invested in her fight for bringing back her husband’s body. For Vijay Septhupathi, the role of Ranasignam is a cakewalk and he brings in the laughs in an otherwise heavy drama.
What director P Virumaandi strives to show is not just the red tape that people face everyday but how difficult the struggle is for a person from the rural area who has far less access to information and those in power. But the redemption in the story is a bureaucrat who actually wants to help the common man. Having said that, the media coverage – like in reality – focuses more on celebrities and issues that don’t have a direct impact or help those in need. Virumaandi’s perspective is insightful about the political and social issues that affect the people in that area and given that the movie is based on true events, it does make you reflect on the true state of affairs in the country.
The movie does have its flaws and being nearly three hours long it does get exhausting. ‘Ka Pe Ranasingam’ is incisive and tells you that life in this country is always a struggle and that silver lining we look for in everything perhaps may not exist. If that is what the director intended, then it was well achieved.
