Karnan is a Tamil film released on Amazon Prime on 14 May, 2021. The film is directed by Mari Selvaraj and stars Dhanush, Lal and Rajisha Vijayan. Karnan is produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu under the banner of V Creations. The newly released film is doing well on the OTT platform and has an IMDb rating of 8.5.

Karnan is influenced by the true story of the 1995 Kodiyakulam violence that took place in Tamil Nadu. The police was asked by the upper castes to attack the Dalits in their village of Kodiyakulam in Thoothukudi district. The police showed no mercy while beating them up and also took away their cash and jewellery.

The film revolves around the story of two hostile villages- Podiyankulam and Melur. Villagers of Podiyankulam do not have their own bus stand, because of which they have to take buses from Melur. The village members in Melur take advantage of this and harass the school and college going children from Podiyankulam. Karnan, a young man from Podiyankulam tries to provide justice to his village but is never backed up by his own people. He grows bitter and takes some strong steps.

In the film, we see glimpses of masked girls in some scenes. According to a native tradition in rural Tamil Nadu, girls who die before getting married are considered goddesses. Therefore, the girls masked as goddesses are a representation of this tradition.

After his critically acclaimed film, Pariyerum Perumal, Karnan is Mari Selvaraj’s second film. Both of his films are based on the oppression of socially backward communities in Tamil Nadu.

I found the first half of Karnan to be quite boring. It was slow and the story did not seem very engaging. But, eventually as the deep seated problems of the village started to unfold, the film became very captivating. I got absorbed in the film during the second half. Those who get triggered by violence should avoid the film.

I loved the direction of the film. The helplessness of the backward communities was very well portrayed in the film. A fun fact about the film is that in some scenes, the people who acted were not professional actors but members of the village where the shooting took place. Karnan brought to the screen the reality of the everyday life of most villagers who are suppressed in the name of their caste. I would strongly recommend Karnan to people who like watching serious issue based films.

Rating- 4/5