It’s an unusual way to describe a film, but I’d call Sillu Karupatti a great ‘year-ender film’. Even as you are struggling to come to terms with another year hurtling towards an end, Halitha Shameem’s second film is the equivalent of a pat on your shoulder, and someone saying, “There, there. As long as there’s love in the world, you will be fine.” It’s an anthology—of four films that work to various degrees of success. Halitha’s smart to have the best of the four films come at the very end. It has the effect of leaving you with a content smile. For those with a sweet tooth, I’d say the effect of walking out is somewhat akin to chewing on a Sillu Karupatti (palm jaggery).

Director: Halitha Shameem
Cast: Samuthirakani, Sunainaa, K Manikandan, Nivedhithaa Sathish, ‘Krav Maga’ Sreeram, Leela Samson, Baby Sara, Rahul

All the four films — Pink Bag, Kaaka Kadi, Turtles, and Hey Ammu — are love stories. And till the last film, Hey Ammu, killed the pattern, the stories are of couples in ascending order of age. The first, Pink Bag, is about a curious relationship that forms between two adolescents—a wealthy girl, and a boy from the slums—when the latter takes to rummaging through the pink garbage bags left by the former’s household. In stories like these, you don’t question the practicality of the premise. I found the imagery of these slum children poring over mountains of garbage to be quite striking. There’s some commentary over the profligacy of the wealthy. One of the slum girls asks the teenage protagonist, Maanjaa, to look for some shampoo for her. “They won’t usually use it all.” The story is about a missing ring—a first world problem—and how Manjaa looks to return it. While you and I would simply walk to a person and hand over the lost object, I found it quite fascinating that the social differences mean that Maanjaa can’t do the same. These are kids who can’t differentiate between a hearing aid and an ear-pod.

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For the remainder of this review (and there’s a lot more left, I assure you), please visit https://www.cinemaexpress.com/reviews/tamil/2019/dec/27/sillu-karupatti-movie-review-a-sweet-anthology-16233.html