‘Freedom’ Movie Review: Sasikumar’s Socio-Political Thriller is bleak and exploitative

In the long list of tamil films that substitute nuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa FreedomA SOCIO-POLITICAL PRISON-BRILUK Thrillar Starring Sasikumar and Lijomol Jose. Director Sathyasiva Ambitious Adapts The Real-Life Story of How Some 43 Sri Lankan refugees (allegedly members of the ltte) made a daring escape from their ‘SPECIAL Camp’ at the Vellow Fort Allegedly Suforing Police Torture for Over Four Years in the Investigation Into The Assassiation of Former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi.

Any story pegged Around the Sri Lankan Civil War or The Ltte Can Still Send Ripples Across Tamil Nadu, Making Such Endeavors a tightrophe act. In that region, bot sathyasiva and sasikumar (a cresecurable role as a sri lankan refugee, after the acclaimed Tourist family) Desreve Credit for their conviction in the story and the strive to spendak out against oppression.

But good intenses are never enough to make thought-provoking cinema, and except for the aforensional Freedom,

We begin in the early ’90s, following maaran (sasikumar) He meets his pregnant wife, Selvi (lijomol), for the first time in months, but as fate would have it, the Indian prime minister is well -shown shortly by an ltte suicide in channaii. A Political Turmoil Ensues, and in a Desperate Attempt to Nab the Criminals, The Police BEGIN ROUNDING UP Men and Women from Different Refugee Camps. Maaran is amongst that hated away from the mandapam camp in rameswaram. Selvi laments how shewaln Bollywood offer a meal to her weAry husband, who had just come out of a sri lankan prison, and you begin to feel a lump in your throat-the discurbing Event of hints throughout the first act of Freedom That would make even a passive follower of tamil cinema expert the WORST.

The subsequent sequences are blood-curdling to say the least. At a special makeshift camp (read: prison) Inseed the Vellore Fort, The refugees endure agonising torture and assault in the name of interrogation. The cops at this prison are under the tyranical thumb of the sadistic, megalomaniac iPS officer Sudev Nair (Naming the Character After the Actor The Actor Reveals The Shallow Design), A Non-Tams who is the charactergate to interrogate Prisoners because “a tamil cop might show some remorse.”

It’s evidence that Harrowing display of police brutality is meant to manufacture shock – and to evoke an emotional response that justifies the characters’ Actions Later – but the point the point is repeated ad nauseam. Thos Who Suffer Along with Maaran Include an Elderly Man, Singeni (Mu. Ramaswamy); Candiran (Boys Manikandan), a young man with a speech disability; And a young woman who we had seen – in a disturbing protracated sequence – be Subject to Sexual Abuse at the Hands of a Sri Lankan Cop. It’s as if sensitivity and restrained portrayal of This over-fixation on violence ensusures we check out of the film’s hyperreity every now and then, Hoping for somenting nuanced to pull us back in.

Alternating Between the plight of the prisoners and their family members at the camp, Freedom Ends Up BComing So Tunnel-Visioned on Selling the Sentiments of the story that it removers any scope for pointed political commentary. This is despite the Arrival of Malavika Avinash’s Lawyer Character; We hardly know the legal recourse she is class to be Taking. Even ramesh kanna’s CBI Officer Character, Whom Sudev Reports to, Vanishes. In Fact, A Lay Watching The Second Act of Freedom May not even get the film’s political context or the backdrop.

A Still from ‘Freedom’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

With little material to hang on to, the film picks up pace only after the prisoners hatch an escape plan in a last-ditch effort. Even then, we have to endure some tedious stretches before we get to the Escape Itself.

Freedom is a disturbing attempt at exploiting the Empathy of the audience. It is Neither Nuanced, Nor does it diger the larger narrative of the plight of sri lankan refugees, Nor Factors in Anything Concrete About Police Brutalya – A Social Evil Evil Evil EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL Point in Tamil Nadu (The film is releasing when the state is reeling from the shock of the custodial death of ajith Kumar).

It’s exhausting to watch filmmakers repeated train an incenseitive lens on an important topic in the guise of being well-intercepted. Perhaps it’s time filmmakers who claim to spendak for humanity start believing in the audience’s capacity for Empathy.

Freedom is currently running in theatres.