- Release Date: 09/02/2024
- Cast: Vikram Chatterjee, Soumya Mukherjee, Sreelekha Mitra, Angana Roy
- Director: Tathagata Mukherjee
“Pariah” Delivers Raw Violence with a Stellar performances but Falls Short on Narrative Ingenuity
“Pariah” was hailed by many as one of the most fascinating, violent, and different films to have come out of the Bengali film industry in years. It also dealt with a subject that many, including some of the most well-read and cinema-conscious people, claimed had never been dealt with before in Indian cinema. Then some people informed me that the film was based on true events and hence was an essential watch for all those who have never heard of the true events and also for the ones who have heard of the true incidents and would like to take a deeper look into how those events transpired.
Let me begin by addressing each of these points. Yes! “Pariah” is easily one of the most violent films to have come out of Bengal, and it is fascinating in its own way, part of which has to do with the performances and the violence. This isn’t the first time that a film about the illegal dog meat trade has come out in India. Last year, a very efficiently made film, Lakadbaggha, was made about this very subject. That was a film that I loved, even though it had its share of discrepancies. “Pariah” does take elements from true events where an unholy nexus was running in Kolkata that willfully supplied dog meat, calling it mutton, to some of the poshest and most well-known restaurants of the city of Kolkata. Sadly, the film doesn’t show us anything in terms of politics or the modus operandi or even a semblance of an investigation that would make this part of the film something to draw our attention to or even educate us in this regard.
“Pariah” chronicles the journey of a man without a name, Vikram Chatterjee, who happens to have his meals at a nearby hotel belonging to an old lady. The old lady takes care of all the nearby street dogs and loves them as her own children. One of these dogs once melts Vikram’s heart with its astute cuteness. Vikram, who doesn’t like getting involved with people or things, starts falling for the puppy’s innocent charm. Things take a sinister turn when the old lady is brutally murdered one night, 8 of her dogs are decapitated, and the puppy goes missing. Vikram, who has apparently had a violent past, takes it upon himself to find the puppy using his particular set of skills that make him a nightmare for people who murder innocents.
The Screenplay Has Nothing Original or Pathbreaking to Offer:
If you have seen Lakadbaggha and take the hyena out of the equation, the story remains nearly the same. I felt that the screenplay was unnecessarily dragged in the first half with some excruciating writing and character moments involving the obnoxiously old lady and another equally loud and crass character that doubles as Vikram’s friend. These two began getting on my nerves very quickly, primarily because of how annoying and inconsequential they were to the greater scheme of things. The screenplay also lacks thrills and tension. The events unfold at such a leisurely pace, and the hero kills off anyone who crosses his path with such ease and efficiency that you never fear for his safety in the film. If that was not enough, the few times that he is disarmed in the film, he springs back to health and dispatches his enemies like he was playing a video in “God Mode”. This doesn’t bode well for a film that endeavours to keep its storytelling fairly realistic. The film is approached as a gritty, and grimy thriller, which demands the characters and the proceedings to be approached in a certain way. This further makes some of the over-the-top scenes and approaches to certain portions of the film feel tonally different.
The suspension of disbelief is also continually trifled with. I was surprised how Vikram was murdering so many people without the police ever landing on his doorstep when he was actually carrying out the crimes so close to his actual place of residence. Even how the character of Angana Roy learns of all that he was doing and still somehow stays quiet was beyond my understanding. Her expressions after gaining this knowledge were also perplexing.
Vikram Chatterjee And Soumya Mukherjee Deliver Stellar Performances:
Having said that, one thing that cannot be questioned here is the performances of the protagonist, Vikram Chatterjee, and the antagonist Soumya Mukherjee. Vikram has apparently worked extremely hard to get the kind of body that suited the character. He not only gets the body right but also the mannerisms and the oddball approach to everything of the character. He is socially challenged, and Vikram sells this aspect of the character wonderfully. He looks the part when he is doing the action, and even in action sequences that are not particularly well done, he sells the scenes thanks to the kind of physicality that he brings to the portions. When he is shown committing violence, you are able to take the man for doing what he is shown doing, and this proves to be a major quality of the action. The brooding nature of the character and its mysterious nature are also wonderfully essayed by Vikram. He proves to be the perfect protagonist for a story of this nature.
Soumya Mukherjee as the antagonist Nanda delivers the best performance of the film. His sudden outbursts, his transformation from being calm to raging with anger, his outlook on the validity of the meat trade, his view of life, and the sheer physicality that he brings to the role couple together to result in a highly impactful and sometimes fear-inducing performance. I wish there was more of him in the film. I was absolutely bowled over by his scenes with Ambarish Bhattacharya and his last few scenes with Vikram and Angana, where we see his acting prowess in full flow. I just wish Tathagata Mukherjee had woven a better story to encompass such fine performances from Soumya and Vikram. This could have been such a great film.
Copious Amounts of Violence to Shock and Awe:
The film has an unprecedented amount of violence and mayhem. Every kind of brutality that you can think of, the film offers in terms of hand-to-hand combat. There are also some elaborate torture scenes that I felt were pretty well done. If that was not enough, the hero is cornered a few times around, and every time, he uses ultra-violence involving objects lying nearby to burrow his way out of the hole. The final action sequence where he uses a mini chainsaw to decapitate, maim, and bludgeon his way through a room full of villains was highly satisfying. Another scene that could have been great was one in a cold storage that was shockingly cut short for no reason. This could have been a defining scene, and the director showed glimpses of his vision being in the right place by how the scene began to unfold but was then unceremoniously cut short for no reason.
One thing that needs to be added here is the fact that while the film has a lot of violence, the action and the hand-to-hand combat are not something that you haven’t seen before. On the contrary, it is very ordinary. If it were not for the physicality of Vikram, the action would have ended up being below average. Despite the abundance of violence, the action sequences lack innovation or uniqueness, relying heavily on conventional tropes. Vikram’s physical prowess elevates these sequences to some extent, but overall, they fail to offer anything remarkable or memorable.
Final Words:
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“Pariah” fails to resonate emotionally and dramatically with the audience. While the unbridled violence we see here is something that hasn’t been seen in Bengali films often, it loses its novelty soon enough. The two stellar performances from Soumya and Vikram, along with able support from Angana Roy, Ambarish, and Sreelekha Mitra, help sustain the interest. Sadly, they are ultimately rendered underwhelming primarily because of how poorly the story and screenplay are written and how predictable everything is in the film. The lack of realism in certain aspects, annoying characters, and the amount of time given to them, along with a lack of innovation in action, also hinder the film at many junctures. I still believe that Tathagata Mukherjee has his heart in the right place, and he might improve in future instalments of the franchise that he sets up interestingly with a homage to “John Wick” in the final scenes of the film. “Pariah” is still a film that needs to be supported if we want better offerings in the same line in the future.
Rating: 2.5/5 (2.5 out of 5 Stars)
The views expressed in this article are that of the reviewer and do not reflect EastMojo’s position.
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