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Casting: Sivakarthikeyan, Ravi Mohan, Atharvaa, Sreeleela, Chethan, Prithvi Pandiarajan, Kaali Venkat
Directed By: Sudha Kongara
Music By: G.V. Prakash
Produced By: Dawn Pictures – Aakash Baskaran
Sivakarthikeyan, who leads a student organization protesting against Hindi imposition, abandons the struggle after the loss of his friend and works as an ordinary employee in the railway department. A few years later, Sivakarthikeyan’s younger brother Atharvaa, who is studying in college, is involved in various protests against Hindi imposition along with his college friends. Sivakarthikeyan, worried by his brother’s actions, reprimands him.
Meanwhile, Jayam Ravi, an IPS officer appointed by the central government to control the protests and eradicate the protesters, acts ruthlessly in his duty.
In this situation, Tamils are affected in various ways by the central government’s Hindi imposition policy. Sivakarthikeyan is also personally affected by the Hindi language. On the other hand, as his younger brother Atharvaa and his friends intensify their protests against Hindi imposition, ‘Parasakthi’ emotionally portrays what his elder brother Sivakarthikeyan did.
Sivakarthikeyan, who plays the role of Chezhiyan, a student with immense love for his language, delivers a vibrant performance that greatly strengthens his character. Perfectly fitting into the politically charged storyline, Sivakarthikeyan has sculpted the character of Chezhiyan through his dialogue delivery and body language, both as a student activist and as an ordinary central government employee.
Ravi Mohan, who plays the police officer, has brilliantly portrayed the villainy with minimal dialogues and restrained acting. Ravi Mohan’s every action, expressing his intense anger towards the protesting students through his gaze alone, evokes strong resentment in the audience.
Atharvaa, who plays a powerful character, delivers dialogues against Hindi imposition that are particularly noteworthy. The screen presence of Rana Daggubati, Fazil Joseph, and Dhananjayan, who appear in special roles, also stands out.
Sreeleela, the lead actress, shines in her strong character that seamlessly integrates with the screenplay.
Cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran has given the audience the feeling of traveling back to the pre-1960s era.
G.V. Prakash Kumar’s music is pleasant to listen to. The background score emotionally enhances the narrative and adds significant strength to the storyline.
Editor Satish Surya has edited the scenes in a way that makes the politically charged storyline not only interesting but also fast-paced.
Art director S. Annadurai’s meticulous handling of the buildings, railway station, and train from that era is remarkably realistic.
The work of costume designer Poornima and the makeup artist is also commendable.
The writing by Sudha Kongara and Arjun Natesan has conveyed the impact of Hindi imposition and the sacrifices of those who fought to liberate Tamil Nadu from it, through scenes and dialogues, in a very simple yet powerful manner.
Director Sudha Kongara has brilliantly conveyed through visual language that “language is not just words, it is one’s identity,” and the struggles undertaken to protect that language. Through the depicted scenes, she has made the impact of Hindi imposition easily understandable to all people. Although the film captivates the audience’s full attention by portraying the great language struggle with remarkable realism, the length of the romantic scenes causes distraction in some places. However, by completely avoiding romantic scenes in the second half and focusing on the intensity of the language struggle, the film successfully recaptures the audience’s full attention.
Even though the censor board made several cuts and muted certain parts, these did not affect the director’s vision in any way; he has fully conveyed what he intended to say and what he tried to make the audience understand.
