Underdog stories tend to traverse a predictable arc - from incipient dream to dogged pursuit, from frequent stumbling blocks to rousing, triumphal finale. On the face of it, Bison Kaalamaadan, writer-director Mari Selvaraj's fifth film, is cast in pretty much the same mould.
But that isn't all there is to it. While the Tamil film largely swings to a familiar beat, it isn't just another sports drama. Selvaraj puts on it a significant spin that liberates the film from the confines of genre. The urgent social commentary at the core of the film is draped in popular storytelling trappings. The audience gets the best of both worlds.
The essence of all of Selvaraj's four previous releases - Pariyerum Perumal, Karnan, Maamannan and Vaazhai - seeps in deep and helps the director give voice to piercing home truths about caste discrimination and systemic violence.
Bison Kaalamaadan, produced by Sameer Nair, Deepak Seigal, Pa. Ranjith and Aditi Anand, pans out on an uncluttered, straightforward and sturdy canvas. The emotions are vibrant, the colours vivid, and the craft never out of sync with the story.
It does not possess the historical sweep of Pa. Ranjith's multilayered boxing saga Sarpatta Parambarai, but Selvaraj is, expectedly, acutely conscious of the corrosive forces that militate against his protagonist's ambitions to shake off the shackles of societal oppression.
Bison Kaalamaadan is inspired by the life of kabbadi star and Arjuna awardee Manathi P. Ganesan, reportedly Selvaraj's childhood friend, but as the film declares upfront, it is not about just one individual but about an entire collective of people who have similar stories.
The film incorporates liberal dashes of fiction to create and prop up the hostile environment that a sportsman born with crippling social disadvantages has to reckon with when he decides he must strive to thrive.
That, however, does not undermine the bristling film's raw, immersive power. Its overall trajectory withstands the weight of the message that is sought to be delivered. While the methods aren't particularly subtle, they aren't in-your-face either, as the film follows a young man who rebels against a society that is bent upon thwarting his aspirations.
Bison Kaalamaadan is Selvaraj's most commercial movie yet, and it is also markedly more violent than any of his other films, including Karnan, but the acts of aggression and bloodletting in the film aren't usually committed by the protagonist.
Kittan (Dhruv Vikram in his third film as lead actor), a kabbadi player who wants to represent India, fights only to shake off the negative effects of the tide of hatred, anger and prejudice that surrounds him in a village overrun by two factions of goons who battle each other in the name of caste pride.
The raw physicality of kabaddi and the combination of quietude and rage that a bison holds within itself provide Selvaraj a pair of powerful metaphors that serve the sport-as-a-tool-of-resistance narrative to great effect.
Together, the traditional game and the docile-until-provoked animal - the skeletal remains of a bison (kaalamaadan in Tamil) adorn a wall of a PT teacher's home - give Kittan's bitter struggle a solid spine that holds even when the film flags a bit.
The film has enough vigour to offset its stray dull moments. What lifts it well above the average is that its second half - the Achilles' heel of many an ambitious film - actually lives up to the promise that the first half holds out.
Dhruv Vikram steps up to the plate with admirable poise. He demonstrates sustained patience and skill in capturing the arduous journey of Kittan from silent obduracy to eventual glory via emotional outbursts that lend vitality to the tale.
The lead actor does not ever get ahead of the script - a lot of young actors seeking to make an instant impression tend to err on that score and end up making a hash of things - and steadily builds up the character in step with the rhythm of the plot.
Kittan, who has to reckon with mounting challenges as he makes progress, is at his most confident when he is on a kabbadi court. Each raid that he makes, each body feint that he pulls off and each show of strength that he displays in either slipping out of the grip of an opponent or pinning a rival player down and scoring a point packs a punch. It points to the fury and resolve that drive him.
Kittan's isn't a lonesome battle. He has moral and emotional support from his father (a terrific Pasupathy), who counsels caution because he has received a raw deal way too often to nurse any hopes of an escape, and his elder sister Raji, who eggs him on despite the stumbling blocks that stand in her brother's path.
Silvers of hope in the darkness emanate from unexpected quarters as Kittan makes his way through a social terrain where rivalries on and off the kabbadi court often assume terrifying forms. Two groups of violent men, one led by Pandiyaraja (Ameer), the other by Kandhasami (Lal), are always at daggers drawn with each other and think nothing of resorting to murder.
They have neither the time nor the sense to pause and wonder what all the caste-fuelled violence will achieve. The futility of the mayhem that they unleash is contrasted with the single-mindedness of Kittan's determination to pull himself out of the debilitating dregs that life has cast him into.
The drama of a young man's passion and persistence in the face of caste discrimination and violence assumes grand proportions even as it stays firmly rooted in the gritty milieu of a village in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district.
So, notwithstanding its share of flaws, the film etches out characters that the audience can find reasons to be invested in. While that may not be true of all the people that Kittan engages with - it is certainly not in the case of Rani (Anupama Parameswaran), the girl who loves the boy despite being older than him - the father-son dynamic definitely elevates Bison Kaalamaanan.
The key performances apart, Bison Kaalamaadan is enlivened by Ezhil Arasu K's cinematography and the musical score by Nivas K. Prasanna, both of which contribute handsomely to accentuating the tactility of the physical setting.
Kabaddi is a sport that requires a raider to be blessed with the ability to hold his breath over long periods of time. But outside the sporting arena, the protagonist is rarely allowed to breathe free. Mari Selvaraj blends two dimensions of his film - sport and life as reflections of each other - and brings them alive in fascinating unison.
Bison Kaalamaadan hits home with the coiled-up force of a muscular beast that never loses sight of its target.
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Dhruv Vikram, Pasupathy, Lal, Ameer Sultan, Rajisha Vijayan and Anupama Parameswaran
