You don’t often see a film where its first shot is one of its best! Era Saravanan’s Nandhan , starring Sasikumar, starts with a group of upper-caste men discussing the selection process for a new temple head within their stratum, without considering a fair election with contestants from other communities. But Saravanan does not show us these people and instead focuses on their slippers left outside the temple premises where the temple’s current inhabitants expect the marginalised people to stand. As each person shares his opinion before another person weighs in — laced with an unhealthy dose of caste pride — the camera hovers from one pair of slippers to another.
Interestingly, Saravanan also ends his film with a shot of a slipper, to probably signify what the perpetrators who commit heinous transgression in the name of caste-based social exclusion deserve. Unfortunately, such quality scenes are few and far between, making Nandhan a mediocre outing. In Nandhan , Sasikumar plays Ambethkumar a.
k.a Koozh Paana — a simpleton cut from the same cloth as Chappani from 16 Vayathinile — working at the residence of Koppulingam ( Balaji Sakthivel ), an upper-caste politician enjoying the perks of his community’s command over the village and his power as the panchayat president. Trouble brews in Koppulingam’s fool-proof run when his panchayat is classified as a reserved panchayat for SCs.
The ex-president, realising he has no other way to secure the position and the pow.