Paava Kadhaigal

Paava Kadhaigal (transl. Sinful Tales) is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language anthology drama film consisting of four short films directed by Sudha Kongara, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Vetrimaaran and Vignesh Shivan. Through four unique stories, the film explores how pride, honour, and sin influence complex relationships of love. The anthology features an ensemble cast including Kalidas Jayaram, Sai Pallavi, Prakash Raj, Simran, Anjali and Gautham Vasudev Menon. It released in Netflix on 18 December 2020, to mostly positive reviews from both critics and audience.

Episodes

Plot

Thangam (Precious) (Sudha Kongara)

Set in the early 1980s in a small town in Kovai district, Sathar (Kalidas Jayaram), a Muslim trans woman is in love with her Hindu childhood friend Saravanan (Shanthanu Bhagyaraj), whom she affectionately calls 'thangam (gold)' and believes that once her sex reassignment surgery is done, they can get married and live together as a normal couple. She earns money by standing in a queue for villagers in the ration shop and delivering their goods to their homes. Saravanan returns to the village after completing his studies and has also acquired a good bank job. Saravanan confides in Sathar that he is in love with her younger sister Sahira (Bhavani Sre). Though heartbroken, Sathar comes to terms with the harsh truth and unites Saravanan and Sahira, who start seeing each other. Word spreads to both families about the budding love, and due to the religious differences, both families oppose the relationship. Despite Sathar's efforts to protect Sahira, she gets beaten up by their abusive father. Saravanan and Sahira plan to elope and get married, and Sathar gives them the money she has saved up for her sex reassignment surgery.

One year later, Saravanan and Sahira's families reconcile with each other and invite the young couple and their newborn son back home. Saravanan and Sahira are excited to reunite with Sathar. While on the way home, they meet with Saravanan's maternal uncle, who tells them what transpired after they left. The villagers are told that after Sathar had helped the couple elope, she was disowned by her family and was thrown out of the house. Saravanan's dad made the villagers get back their ration cards from Sathar, and she was left without a livelihood. She was forced to live on the streets, where she was stalked and harassed by the town's hooligans. On one such night, she was being chased by the hooligans, and all the villagers refused to let her into their homes. Out of desperation, she goes back to her parents for help, but her mother refuses to open the door and instead begs her to die at the hands of the thugs, since that would make it easier for her to marry off the rest of her sisters and restore the family's honor. Sathar is devastated upon hearing this and walks as prey willingly into the hands of the waiting thugs, who rape and kill her mercilessly. Saravanan and Sahira are inconsolable at the entire village's heartlessness and the misfortune they caused Sathar. They leave without meeting their parents, despite their constant pleas. Saravanan goes to their favorite spot on the riverside, finds Sathar's little possessions, and cries for his long-gone friend.

Love Panna Uttranum (If You Love Something, Set It Free) (Vignesh Shivan)

Twin sisters, Aadhilakshmi and Jothilakshmi (Anjali), are the daughters of a feudal village lord, Veerasimman (Padam Kumar). Jothi lives in the city, while Aadhi lives in the village with her father. Veerasimman seemingly endorses inter-caste marriages for his political agenda, but deep down in his heart, he has a strong hatred towards lower-caste villagers. His henchmen, headed by Narikutty (Jaffer Sadiq), go about killing couples who marry out of their caste. It is at this point that Aadhilakshmi naively believes in the change in her father's attitude and reveals that she is in love with their family driver (K. Manikandan), who is from a different caste. She confides in Jothi and asks her to come to their village to meet them all. Meanwhile, Veerasimman, on the advice of Narikutty, agrees to kill Aadhi and her boyfriend to preserve the honor of their community. Narikutty sets up a live wire and gets Aadhi to fatally electrocute herself. Her boyfriend was also murdered in a seemingly innocent car crash. Jothilakshmi arrives at her village with her friends Penelope (Kalki Koechlin) and "Bad Boy" Bharani (Stony Psyko). Penelope and Jothi find that Aadhi is missing and things have not changed in her household. Suspecting yet another inter-caste relationship, Narikutty beats up Bharani, and this forces Penelope to reveal that she is a lesbian in a relationship with Jothi and Bharani is just their friend. Veerasimman and Narikutty are horrified and threaten to kill everyone. At Aadhi's funeral, Penelope and Bharani are given a death threat and are forced to leave town, leaving Jothi behind. Jothi becomes depressed, begs her father to let her go alive, and says that she will never come back. Penelope and Bharani arrive that night to pick her up, and surprisingly, Veerasimman does not object. On their way back to the city, Penelope calls Veerasimman and Narikutty to tell them that Jothi in fact is not a lesbian and the lesbian relationship was just an act to save Bharani. Years later, it is revealed that Veerasimman really has had a change of heart and escaped his village and its caste-based violence and lives in France with his daughter.

Vaanmagal (Daughter of the Sky) (Gautham Vasudev Menon)

Sathya (Gautham Vasudev Menon) and Mathi (Simran) are a close-knit middle-class couple living in Madurai with their three children: a college-going son Bharath (Aadithya Bhaskar), an older daughter Vaidehi (Sathanya), and a 12-year-old daughter Ponnuthaayi (Aangelina Abraham). When Vaidehi attains puberty, she is advised by a strictly old-fashioned Mathi on how to stop behaving like a child and start acting like a woman, protect herself, and lead a dignified and honorable life. But one night, Ponnuthayi is wrongly kidnapped (instead of Vaidehi) after her dance lessons and is raped by a rich brat from their neighborhood. She comes back home traumatized, and the entire family is distraught at the wrong that befell their young child. Not wanting to go public with the incident, Mathi refuses to lodge a police complaint, despite the pleas of Bharath and Sathya. Sathya is helpless as a father and struggles to cope with his day-to-day life. Mathi tries her best to protect Ponnuthaayi from the prying eyes of her neighbors and relatives, who start believing rumors following Ponnuthaayi's brief disappearance. Ponnuthaayi slowly recovers from her injuries, and Sathya gives her a reassurance that there is nothing wrong on her and asks her to continue following her dreams. Mathi is unable to deal with the questions heaped on her and the stories framed by society. She briefly imagines pushing Ponnuthaayi off a cliff to avoid the dishonor, but she pulls herself together and is ashamed of her own thoughts. She resolves to continue living with her head held high. An angst-ridden Bharath manages to track down the perpetrator, who is his own college senior. He swears revenge, and with the help of his friends, he manages to castrate the culprit to prevent him from harming any other girl.