User Reviews

We know about director bala's films. Most of the films will have characters with different appearances and incredible acting. The films concentrate about suffering of a main lead character and people surrounding them and ends with an obvious sad ending.

I was disappointed with "Avan Ivan" and "Naan kadavul" since everything followed the same plot and i expected more. The actors in his films perform so well that their brilliant acting wasn't supported with a nice script. Bala is so talented as a director and he is obviously one of the bests in Kollywood but he needs to write better scripts. Tamil directors need to adapt novels instead of trying to write their own script.

I came to know this "Paradesi" film was said to be based on a novel "Red tea" by Paul harris Daniel. i don't know anything about that book but this film still seems more similar to his previous films. The film is all about sufferings of villagers who are tortured to work for British's tea plantations. All the characters have acted very well especially adharva and his role as hero just like Bala's previous films, stays in our minds even after minutes after the film is over. The setting, environment, camera works and BGM selection all top class showing Bala's capability as a director. I like how his film stays out of usual commercial tamil filmmaking style which doesn't have 5 songs, 5 fights, comedians, and punch dialogues. he takes tamil cinema close to Hollywood style and falls short.

"Paradesi" contains many weird scenes especially my favourite part of the film, where a new doctor comes to cure the coolies suffering from an unknown disease. Adharva will bring his roommate (lady who lives with him on the hut) suffering from illness to this doctors hospital. i expected he would cure her. Instead he suggests them to praise the almighty. Next day he and his white girlfriend starts singing and dancing for a Christian song for Christmas which kind of imitates the devotional songs in many of other tamil films where at the end of the song almighty will create a miracle such as curing a person suffering from sickness. But here, this is Bala's film, devotional Christian song which is nowhere sounding near the ones sang on churches, instead very very hilarious ending with.. the patient herself dying! I wouldn't call it controversial but the reality.

This film is almost close to be called a masterpiece. But it isn't because lacks something.

Story: Ottuparuki alias Rasa (Adharvaa) is the local messenger, who travels across to different villages, delivering the news! Angamma (Vedhika) is a bubbly village belle, with a soft corner for the lively Rasa! However, the villagers are against Angamma getting involved with him, and warn her against it. Sensing the need to prove himself he decides to work in Zameendar's tea plant. Rasa's struggle for freedom at tea plantation forms the crux.

Performances

Adharvaa is stunning throughout the movie. His big expressive eyes bring out many emotions. His extreme physical and mental effort can be seen clearly on screen. Climax act was top notch.

Vedhika is sure to make a mark with her character which has both shades. She brings out some relief from proceedings during interval.

Dhansika gives some quite subtle reactions. Her character is contrary to Vedhika's character but still she is the show-stopper. The others in cast like the villainous landlord and the granny of Adharvaa are excellent in their performance.

Technical Analysis

Cinematography by Chezhiyan is brilliant, the locales of 1940 village and tea plant are well captured and camera work stands out in the film. Musical scores are excellent while background score is quite impressive. Action sequences are fantastically shot. Bala has succeeded again in direction department while screenplay is interesting. Editing by Kishore Te, who made the cuts perfect without any flaws is outstanding. Paradesi is technically brilliant.

Analysis

Director Bala has come up with innovative story line.. Paradesi is based on novel The Red Tea (written by Paul Harris). The film depicts the wretched lives of tea plantation workers. Director Bala shows us the lives of carefree and poor villagers who are forced to work as slaves for rest of their lives with no trace of freedom. The first half is smooth going with few heart touching scenes and interval bang is absolute outstanding. In the second half of the movie Adharvaa steals the show with his sheer acting skills along with Dhansika who plays the role of abandoned mother of 2 children. Climax is remarkable.

With no commercial elements, we are yet to see how the Tamil movie lovers will receive the film. Nonetheless, the film will be loved by Bala fans and remains as one of his best works.

Final Verdict

Paradesi is surely going to be a landmark film for Tamil cinema.

really awesome movie :) bala the godfather of Tamil cinema

Paradesi One of its kind.... hats off to the national award winner Director Bala....Brilliant performance from the whole crew.. no one to spare...Heard t was a true story hand Prue independence.... kinda heart broken... Its kinda tribute to those people working n tea plantations.....Tears at the end...highly worthy movie... BEst original screenplay film by bala ever !! Paradesi

No one in Indian cinema Industry can take this subject !! makkalaal maraikapatta Unmai !! very Sad It happened for real !!

Bala Living a REal men Life . took cinema beyond entertainment Pls we waiting For Film on Tamil ealam , sir.

P.S : Oscar 2 awards parcel for aadharvaa and bala

Inspired from a book titled Red Tea, it tells the story of enslaved plantation workers who experience atrocities in pre-Independence India. After extraordinary films like Sethu, Pithamagan I was disappointed by Naan kadavul and Avan Evan and thought Bala has lost it and would not be seeing another creation from him. When Paradesi was announced I was happy but not convinced by the initial trailers but the images were riveting and pulled me to see this film. And was it worth it, yes it was. This is a comeback film for Director Bala. Bala has transformed the actors in the film into real life characters. Hats off to Director Bala. He not only made characters out of actors but even pulled out a masterpiece from G.V.Prakash the music director,His background score and songs were truly amazing. Special credit should also be given to the cinematographer Chezhiyan who has managed to capture all the essential elements for the film.After being responsible for career-defining roles for actors like Vikram, Suriya, Vishal and Arya . Bala has also transformed Atharvaa from a boy next door to a mainstream actor who can perform. Both the female leads played by Vedhika and Dhanshika have performed well in the film. The first half of the film has lifelike characters that draw you into their lives with their realistic performances making it fast and crisp while the second half of the film exposes the pain, anguish and suffering over and over and makes it tough to sit through . Although there was some (cheap) relief in the second half given to the audience by the dance master Shivshankar ,.But an edit of the film to a 90 to 100 minutes would make it watchable without pain.

I am the big fan of bala.I have watched this movie in PVR vadodara. movie stays on my expectation.

Every actor who acted in this movie has done wonderfully. Atherva and thansika worth to get awards. The Granny character steal the show of first part of the movie.. The villains (both kankani and British character )acting are really good. Climax performance of atherva was really hard hitting and ensures the tears.

As a directer bala succeeds but not above the Naan Kadavul or Pithamagan director. Camera and music sink very well with movie. They make you that you are not watching the movie but part of the story.

Vairamuthu written very well and this year definitely he will get national award for this movie.

You can be proud that you are fan of Bala. Ther are negatives points. Like Some filthy jokes.

Do you only like hero worshiping Vijay or Ajith or Rajini movies ? Please stay in home. This is not the movie for you. If you are fan of mindless cheap movies like Kalakalappu, Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya etc stay away from 'Paradesi'. If you are expecting a movie with commercial songs for you to give a reason for smoking, please don't bother.

After lot of expectations Bala's Paredesi has finally hit the screen on March 15th 2013 and I watched it in AGS cinemas Navalur 1st day :) . Like many other Bala fans in theater I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and came out of the theater with heavy heart because of heart wrenching story. To my surprise Bala's 'Paradesi' running time is just 120 minutes unlike other Bala movies. OK lets jump into the review.

Story : Bala's Paradesi is based on an English novel "Red Tea" by Paul Harris Daniel.Story is about the life and struggles of the exploited tea-plantation workers during 1930's – 40's. And it revolves mostly around the three characters' Atharvaa Murali, Vedhika, Dhansika including supporting actors Ritwika, Uday Karthik, Sivasankar Master and many other new faces. This is all the introduction you gonna get from me because this is a no spoilers review.

Direction : Bala once again proved why he is the top director in the country and gives us the reason why Bollywood top director like Anurag Kashyap watch him with aw. Like his previous extraordinary works like Sethu, Pithamagan and Naan Kaduval, Paradesi too strictly stays away from commercial elements. The interval shot(when the interval wording is displayed) and final climax shot (before "film by Bala" words) are just mouthwatering visual storytelling to its finest. Not only in direction, the master craftsman did wonders in all department including Screenplay, Character selection and also production as-well.5 out of 5.

Paradesi Atharvaa Murali and Ritwika

Cast : Atharvaa Murali, Vedhika & Dhansika and all other casts did their job to perfection. They delivered their characters clear and grounded as in all other Bala movies. Thanks to Bala's reality treatment and Im pretty sure after watching the movie in big screen you all will thank as well.

Music: Though G.V.Prakash did a very good job in songs department, sometimes I got the feeling his Bgm are overlapping with the scene. Most of the BGM is quite heavy (or loud) and it distracts the viewers from the scene. Maestro Ilayaraja would have did wonders, don't know why Bala opted for G.V.

Cinematographer 'Chezhiyan' former assistant of Ace Cameraman 'P C Sriram' worked very closely with director's vision and got the essence of the tea estate and all the actors emotions very well. Some of his previous works were 'Thenmerku Paruvakatru' and 'Magizhchi'.

Art, Costume and Editing are another plus. You cant point your finger once for any wrong reasons. To my surprise the movie run at a very brisk space thanks to crisp editing.

On the whole this is a "Must Watch" movie and definitely a land mark movie in Tamil Cinema. Congratulations to Director Bala and his team for making a honest film with universally appealing human emotions. Also Congratulation in advance for winning the National Awards.

Movie Rating : 5 out of 5. Watch it only in theaters.

Http://Millionluck.com/Paradesi-movie-review-first-day-first-show/

The film starts out with the charmingly simple and playful narrative one expects from Indian cinema. A small village romance is disrupted when a young man, and others, are convinced by a kangany to go and pick tea in the hills.

Surely the lives of tea pickers were not great, however they were not much different to those of other Indian labourers at the time. The beatings and the scene in which the protagonist's leg is cut after he attempts to "run away" were completely made up. Of course labourers were free to leave, although those with debts would still need to find a way to pay them off. The idea of night patrols chasing down run aways and mutilating them is pure fantasy.

The head planter on the estate was not even played by an Englishman, and speaks with some odd American/German accent. There was little effort to replicate the fashion and costume of the time, with him wearing American aviator shades in one scene.

Perhaps this film does provide a little insight into the hardships of the Tamil tea pickers, and the cinematography is quite delightful throughout, but it is too theatrical and too historically inaccurate to appeal to me.

P A R A D E S I

A Review by Dr Deena Padayachee

Not long ago, I read Orwell's perceptive and brilliant Burmese Days. The book had belatedly given me the best insight that I had ever seen about how Empires operate, how they destroy the souls of the conquered, and how they help the venal to flourish while they eviscerate the most noble (few and far between, as they are, among Homo Sapiens) among the conquered. Orwell shows how empires inevitably corrode the spirits of the conquistadors, even though, since they control the media, they might fool themselves and the defeated, that what they are doing is moral, upright, ethical and even religious.

There is a movie on circuit at present which should strike a chord with most of my readers as it dramatizes living conditions in rural southern India in the early twentieth century and shows us the challenges faced by workers on a typical British-owned tea plantation.

The poets among you (and even some of the rest of you) will love the poetry which spices up the exquisite songs and elevates this movie to a higher level, so that it becomes more than a simple narrative. The music is haunting and for me, absolutely gorgeous. This is a film which I have to see again. It is that good.

PARADESI is a subtitled Tamil language film which is a carefully crafted master-piece set in British-occupied Dravidian India. The writer/producer is called Bala. What struck me is that for Bala, there are few, if any, 'noble savages'. The often primitive peasants are as cruel and unfeeling as any plantation manager or pampered lord. The movie centres around a big buffoon, Rasa, (He looks like a laid-back, sub-normal clone of Kumi Naidoo) who is the butt of everybody's jokes; he is the twit of the village.

Amicable, despite being violated by just about everybody (including the woman who secretly likes him), the muscular wretch is like a caricature of India. There is something infinitely tragic and sad about the way this amiable giant allows so much abuse to be heaped upon him.

He is a metaphor for most of the planet that was owned by the 'free West' at that time – before the Germans, Italians and Japanese were let loose upon them.

Then there are the cunning, devious, sly Indian collaborating class whose existence depends upon their being treacherous traitors, spies, informers, whores and pimps in the rape, exploitation and destruction of their own country and its wretched people. They reminded me of a few venal local academics, journalists and even writers who cozy up to the oh-so-clever white academics in the hope of getting the odd smile here and the crumb there.

The plantation manager has his whores among the workers in the tea plantation. The English did something similar to the conquered Scots and other numerically disadvantaged, defeated peoples in the British isles and elsewhere. A newly married woman is coveted by the white manager and he decrees that 'she must not have sex with her husband but she must be given to him'.

When she resists, the white manager's fury is unleashed on a horrible, venal labour recruiter; the Indian collaborator/pimp has to implore the white Master, in the most servile and nauseating way, to allow him to 'set matters right'. He will get the married woman to be a whore.

What a metaphor about what happens to a conquered country! Metaphorically and sometimes literally speaking, that sort of thing happened in most conquered countries.

There's a biting, satirical vignette about an Indian doctor, married to a white, who is Christian. When they drive up to the plantation, the Indian who greets them automatically assumes that the white is the doctor. They try to convert as many souls as possible while they are healing the ailing. They dance (most hilariously) for the benefit of the Indians and the naive peasants are converted wholesale.

As usual, the whites, as in most Indian movies, are pathetic, wooden actors; the voice-overs are worse than amateurish.

Most of our young are not going to see this film; most are really young and arrogant and will not want to acknowledge that they have any sort of link (no matter how far back) to a macerated country like conquered India.

Then there are the haughty, relatively well-off and often light- skinned 'modern' Indians. (they love to hiss, 'my great grandfather was a white, you know'). Will such South Africans want to see such a well- produced, well directed and beautifully acted film? I seriously doubt it.

On the evening I saw the film there were about 12 Indians at the cinema. The place has a capacity of about 120. There was a white couple there. They sat at a similar spot – about half-way down, on the left- hand side and all by themselves. They nicely isolated themselves from us, dark people.

One of the best aspects of this film is the fact that many dark- skinned actors have a part in the movie. That is most unusual for an Indian film.

Will Vivian Reddy hire the cinema and get his entire work-force to see this film as he did with that spy film, 'Skyfall'? I can't see that happening.

Will the great author who writes about Apartheid cops having 'hearts of gold' (and who, in his book, attacked those Indians who were anti apartheid)see this film? A BIG FAT NO. Will his side-kick, the elephant cliché, watch this film? No, not till Jehovah has a birthday.

Will their embedded journalists see this film? Definitely not. Will the unethical Indian academics see this film? It's unlikely.

However I am so glad that I saw this cinematic stunner. It is magnificent.

A brilliant film yet again from Bala & team. He takes us on a journey of hardship through the eyes of tea plantation slave workers in pre- independence India. As always, the characters are great and fleshed out, often making us, the audience, feel part of the suffering. All the actors & extras are great. Camera-work was fantastic with its sepia tones. G.V.P's music was a massive letdown, Isaignani's touch was sorely missing. The only minus points would be the rather wooden, 2 dimensional characterization of the Britishers and the unnecessary proselytizing song towards the end. The film ends rather abruptly, but it does so to show the never-ending lives of these workers. Based on the 1969 novel Red Tea, this is in my opinion Bala's best work since Sethu.

I am a (singaporean) and i am a big fan of Indian cinema and beyond that i am a great fan of (bala) movies,reason:he give a reality in his movies and most importantly all the cast in his movie will give a top performance. Paradesi, a pejorative Tamil term meaning a foreigner or wastrel, deals with the story of enslaved tea plantation workers in (pre-independent India). The film has been adapted from Eriyum Panikadu a Tamil translation of the 1969 novel Red Tea by (Paul Harris Daniel) which deals with Harris's encounters with enslaved tea plantation workers in the Madras Presidency in colonial India.the film was released on the 15th of march 2013 worldwide and is flying with positive response,the reason for giving such a realistic film to the audience and not only that it clearly shows how the British treated the tea plantation workers as a slaves.there u go a short plot about the movie before i start out with my review.

Rasa (Adharvaa) is a carefree young man living in a rural village in the Madras Presidency during the early days of the British Raj. Orphaned at a young age, he is brought up by his nagging but loving hunchback grandmother. Angamma (Vedhicka), a village girl falls for him and takes pleasure in bullying him. When she finally confesses her feelings for him, they make love and soon reveal the fact that they are in love before the entire village. Angamma's mother objects as Rasa is jobless and irresponsible, making him unqualified to become anyone's husband. Rasa then goes to the nearby village in search of work. He comes across a friendly Kangani, who then follows Rasa back to his village. The Kangani offers a work for the villagers at the British tea plantations at the hillside. He promises them proper accommodation and high wages. Like many of the villagers, Rasa signs up with the Kangani, hoping he can send home money every month for his ailing grandmother. Both Angamma and his grandmother are sad to watch him go. When Rasa and his villagers finally arrive at the tea plantation, things are not as what the Kangani promised. The Kangani and his henchmen rule the plantation with an iron fist.so what happen to (rasa) and his villagers? did he and his people escaped? did (Rasa) rejoin back to Angamma(Vedhicka)? that forms the rest of the story.

GVP music was a big plus to the movie in a interview he told that the music for the film was done in a different manner,it seems Bala have asked Gvp permission whether he can compose the music just by looking at the visuals,for a challenge Gvp accepted it as he had already done it before for one of the song in his previous film (aayirathiloruvan) 2010 so that could be the reason for the songs to be a massive hit as it tells the soul of the story,every single word speaks in each and every songs.

Cinematography was well much the talk of the town,as Chezhiyan has handled it wonderfully as the visuals for capturing and mind blowing as it brings you back to the late 30s setback. Kishore editing was perfect as the story keeps you on the edge of the seat. Screenplay,producer and director Bala was a one man hero for the movie if not for him the film wouldn't be getting such positive response.

Highlight: (Atharvaa) and (Vedhika) performance was top class as they are surely awaiting a national award. every single one of them who acted in this film has lived in their role.

on the hold Bala's Paradesi is a movie not to be missed by every single Indian,the real and untold incident,how the people suffered during those days,the answer for this is shown clearly and technically well in this movie.

verdict: "PARADESI one of the most highlight movie of 2013,shouldn't be missed

Rating:4.5/5