‘Siruvan Samuel’ movie review: Amateurish filmmaking sabotages a hearty tale

Ajidhan Thavasimuthu, K.G. Vishnu in a still from ‘Siruvan Samuel’
| Photo Credit: Countryside Films

The nostalgia of the 90s and early 2000s is a delicate motif to crack in storytelling. You need more than just references to get the smartphone generation a lived-in perspective on the prestige that came with owning a Game Boy, the intricate process of tying the maanja kite thread around a cracked cricket bat, and how trading cards were the secret currencies. At the same time, the evergreen ‘90s kids — who are no longer kids — are alert when it comes to the topic of their childhood. Many, like last year’s Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee, managed to take us back in time. With Siruvan Samuel, director Sadhu Burlington had the perfect setting and an excellent storyline to tap into the nostalgia, just enough to make a good children’s film that even the 90’s kids can watch, but falters in the process.

Siruvan Samuel takes you into a benevolent but harsh world of young children on the outskirts of Kanyakumari. Even when a short man-in-blue made millions of children dream big, a sport like cricket was still seen as one for the delinquents. From his parents, bigger boys, and even the PT master of his school, everyone dissuades the young Samuel (Ajidhan Thavasimuthu) from playing cricket. But Sam is fixated on somehow buying a Britannia cricket bat. The family’s financial position and the social stigma around sports are hurdles but when someone informs him that he can buy a bat if he collects a certain amount of trading cards, Sam embarks on a mission.

Rajesh (K.G. Vishnu) is all that Sam has to help him navigate this world. Hailing from an impoverished family, Rajesh is upset about how the world looks at him; everyone loves to berate him for his shortcomings and he doesn’t hesitate to show them a piece of his mind. Things take a turn when Rajesh gets accused of stealing a Game Boy from a rich brat with whom he didn’t get along well. His impulsive alcoholic father pulls Rajesh out of school, and Sam now has to march forward in his goal of collecting trading cards, even if it means he has to steal them.

There’s a lot of heart in this tale. It’s impressive how it speaks of how adults fail to understand the world of children and how they thrust their toxic ideals from their elevated positions of power. Anything these kids do becomes a topic to gossip about, and it can be something as simple as Sam asking his dad to buy him a cricket bat. It’s the arc of Rajesh’s character that best elucidates this: the title ‘thief’ hangs atop his head like a knife and the film even organically develops a situation at a house function that shows how class and creed divisions can pervert the minds of elders.

And all this heart and good intentions mean little when they don’t translate to the screen; Siruvan Samuel is terribly amateurish as a film. Even when there’s a visible effort to make it all seem real, director Sadhu is adamant about spoon-feeding things to the audience and constantly disrupts the narration by thrusting manufactured nostalgia onto us. For every beautiful shot of the locales of Kanyakumari or a well-staged scene after a game of cricket, we also have clumsily conceived shots with ordinary staging, composition, and cuts that make it look like an amateur’s short film. And tight close-ups of the teary eyes of tender-hearted children, with an electric guitar strumming a loud melody in the background, will not evoke melancholy if the writing of the scene cannot do it organically.

And the biggest antagonist of the film is the music and the sound design. On one hand, live sound is used to bring a lifelike flavour, and on the other, gets undone with poorly-designed artificial sounds. There’s also a pointless song set at a wedding, with only two recurring shots for the entirety: a bunch of girl children throwing flowers at the couple, and the couple. Some other creative decisions become a buzzkill, like the writing of the scene disclosing the mystery of the missing Game Boy that provides no scope for any suspense.

Stills from ‘Siruvan Samuel’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Now, should one look for finesse in a children’s film is a question that needs to be addressed. While there have been countless children’s films that simplify the storytelling for the sake of kids but don’t compromise on the craft, with Siruvan Samuel, you don’t know for sure who the film is made for. But even for adults, the biggest irk of watching this film would be the unavailability of subtitles. It claims to be the first film made in Kanyakumari Tamil, a slang with a high Malayalam influence, and it does prove to be a strain for the unversed.

Siruvan Samuel releases in theatres this Friday