‘Appatha’ movie review: An undercooked melodrama with generic sentimentality and little substance

A still from ‘Appatha’

A few minutes into Priyadarshan’s Appatha, we get a thought-provoking shot. A boy measures an aircraft in the sky with his thumb and index finger and wonders why it’s so tiny. The elderly protagonist, Kannama (known as Appatha to her fellow villagers), tells him, “The farther things go, the smaller they appear to us.” 

Appatha’s reply makes us wonder about her wisdom and worldview. Though from a tiny village, she seems more educated and empowered than her friends and neighbours. She helps a person read an official document. She accompanies a woman to the police station to release her alcoholic, abusive husband. When the cop tells Appatha that the wife refuses to file a complaint, she complains about how women are still meek and submissive. Appatha is an independent lady, making and selling pickles for a living.

But she also lives alone. Her husband has passed away. And her son, who lives in Chennai with his family, has not visited her in years. Though he has gone farther from her, he hasn’t become smaller in her life. She still has an ocean of affection for him that mothers in Tamil cinema have always had for their sons.

Her love for him is unconditional… and also unreasonable because the son is an insensitive, unempathetic jerk. We get to know this through a few flashbacks. While in school, he complains to her about not buying a new school bag. When she brings him lunch, he feels embarrassed at her presence. She learns that he has told his friends that she is the housemaid. Presently, he presses her to sell their ancestral home, which she is emotionally attached to, so he can get a loan. Alas, Appatha is no different from the wife who puts up with the abusive husband. If the former is shackled by the expectation of a “good wife”, the latter is a “good mother” who will not even argue with her son.

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About half an hour into the two-hour film, Appatha gets a call from her son, inviting her to Chennai to stay with him for a few days. She is ecstatic. She thinks he has finally realised his love for her. But after going there, she realises he just called her to look after his dog despite knowing her fear of dogs. The film, then, shifts from a mother-son conflict into an old village lady-dog conflict. The tone, too, abruptly transitions from sentimental to goofy. The rest of the film is about how Appatha starts liking the dog, becomes friends with her son’s apartment neighbours, and makes her son realise her unconditional love for him.

There are far and few Tamil films that explore the lives of elderly protagonists. We can name a handful of examples like Dhanush’s Pa Pandi, M Manikandan’s Kadaisi Vivasayi, Sabari-Saravanan’s Koogle Kuttapa, Sudha Kongara’s segment, Ilamai Idho Idho, in the Amazon Prime anthology Putham Pudhu Kaalai, and the recent Amazon Prime series Sweet Kaaram Coffee. 

But there’s still a shortage of elderly protagonists in Tamil cinema. With a fantastic actor like Urvashi, the film could have delved much deeper into exploring her character. But all we know about her is that she is kind, independent and occasionally goofy. The story by Hardik Gajjar is simple. But Priyadarshan and Deepthi Govindarajan’s screenplay fails to make it effective. We get caricatures instead of characters. None of them are real. The dog bits, too, are generic. Apart from finding a few vignettes cute, we can’t invest in the relationship between Appatha and the dog. And, considering the dog was a big part of the film’s trailers and posters, this is a letdown. The supporting characters are underwritten — hence, forgettable. After a point, we watch the film only because of Urvashi’s performance. 

The difference between a sweet film and an annoying one lies in their contrasting effects on the audience. The former possesses the magical ability to captivate hearts, leaving viewers with a warm feeling long after the credits roll. On the other hand, an annoying film becomes a trying experience for the audience, testing their patience and endurance. Appatha tries to be sweet but ends up annoying.

 Appatha is currently streaming on JioCinema