KANCHIVARAM
Woven From Heart
by Vishal Verma

A Percept Picture Co., T-Series production, in association with Four Frames. (International sales: Spier Films, London.) Produced by Shailendra Singh. Director-Writer : Priyadarshan.

Starring
Prakash Raj, Shreya Reddy, Shammu, Jayakumar.

Technical Analysis
Brilliant! Riveting, you couldn’t have asked for a better gift on your 75th outing as a helmer. Priyadarshan’s credentials were evident in ‘Kala Pani’ and he knew somebody somewhere is waiting. It took a time for the veteran to deliver cause he was lost in doing those ‘Hera Pheri’s’ & ‘Malamal Weekly’s’ no doubt they were decent entertainers which did the click trick at the B.O. But real and substantial cinema was aloof from the erstwhile successful maker of comedy capers. 

‘Kanchivaram’ will give inferiority complex to the makers of brainless comedies, though it made sense at the B.O. Coming to sensible cinema, ‘Kanchivaram’ reintroduces Priyadarshan to us, fresh as a daisy after all these years, Pridarshan’s compellingly touchy Tamil-language weave of   exploited silk weavers paints a ground's-eye portrait of life in an impoverished Tamil village during the British Raj.

Pridarshan’s chapter in realism gives us a film that is at once intensely local and gloriously universal.

The official selection at Toronto, Pusan, Dubai & 39th IFFI, ‘Kanchivaram’ hails as a realistic view and the quasi-documentary technique adapted to depict realistic slices of everyday life, very professionally made in every respect. Which is not all ashamed of following the nuances of Ray, Bimal Da, Ghatak.

The actors Prakash Raj & Shreya Reddy deliver a superb performance. Though the physical appearance & image of Prakash for the lead role may be difficult for some in the beginning.

Thiru’s remarkable photography rightly captures the indelible sense of alienation and despair as the protagonist wanders through his promise by stealing, joining communalism & failing . 

The tightly structured script ingeniously combines the overriding pathos with irony, while the main focus is on the life of the silk weavers, it also mentions the failure of communalism in an undertone manner and the terrible things that poverty does to people and their children. A concern that renowned masters had dealt beautifully during their times be it Bimal Da in ‘Do Bheega Zameen’, or Vittorio De Sica in ‘The Bicycle Thief’. By the end, when Vengadam (Prakash Raj) manically laughs at the death of her daughter, the problems of these silk weavers attains the force and recognizes Priyadarshan as a filmmaker who you can,t dare to laugh at by now.

The Story
Set in the sneo-realistic era of 1940s in a small village in Madras Province of South India which was famous for its silk-weaving art. ‘Kanchivaram’ represents the name of the village and also the brand of the rich-textured silk sari that it produced. As per Hindu rituals silk is a symbol of sanctity and used for the purity of soul at two important events in a human’s life – marriage and death. Employing this holy belief as its backing, Priyadarshan meticulously weaves a basic human story of a silk-weaver Vengadam (Prakash Raj) who while coming to his hometown Kanchivaram post his marriage. Ever since a child he made claims of getting home his bride in a silk sari but the poverty-struck situation of the silk-weaving community couldn’t turn his dream into reality. The affluent capitalist has been selling the silken creations to the British at whopping price and the weavers are not even paid peanuts.

As Vengadam turns father to a baby girl, he promises before the village to marry his daughter in a silk sari. While the villagers ridicule and forget his pledge, Vengadam is slowly and stealthily working towards creating one silk sari for his daughter over the years. Since affording silk is out of question, he starts stealing tiny threads of silk on a regular basis from workplace to the backyards of his house.

On the other hand, he is leading the villagers in the communist revolution and simultaneously also inspiring the weavers to oppose the oppression and exploitation of their merchant. How his individual activities collectively influence his daughter’s marriage and his assurance of gifting her one pure silk Kanjivaram sari forms the crux of the plotline.

Conclusion
This multilayered film which revisits Ray, Ghatak, Bimal Da in terms of the raw & realistic approach with the whispering echoes of Vittorio De Sica, this underlying cinema should get more international exposure apart from its festival run.

Other Credits
Camera (color), Thiru; Editor, Arun Kumar; Music, M.G. Sreekumar; Production Designer, Sabu Cyril, Sound (Dolby Digital), Deepan Chatterjee. Reviewed at Cinemax, Mumbai (Sp. Screening), 25th Nov, 2008. Running time: 117 MIN.

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