A.R. Murugadoss Productions, Purple Bull Entertainment and God Bless Entertainment’s August 16 1947 (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name; UA) is set against the backdrop of India’s Independence from the British Raj. It is a love story of Param and Deepali, who live in Songadh village which is quite cut off from the main cities of India.
Robert (Richard Ashton) is a wicked British general who, alongwith son Justin (Jason Sha), exploits the inhabitants of Songadh village, and makes them work like machines to increase the production of cotton. Robert loves his son so much that any and every desire of Justin must be fulfilled by him. In the village lives Param (Gautham Karthik) who loves the Thakur’s (Madhusudan Rao) daughter, Deepali (newfind Revathy). Girls are unsafe in the village because Justin rapes every girl he sets his eyes on. The villagers are too scared to revolt against the tyrant father-son duo and so, they either let their girls be raped or bury them alive to save the family honour. Thakur lies to the villagers that his daughter is dead but the truth is that she is confined within the four walls of their home so that she does not become the object of Justin’s desire. Param is, perhaps, the only villager who knows that his childhood beloved, Deepali, is alive.
Param sacrifices his love when he learns that Deepali’s father has secretly finalised her marriage with a rich boy in the neighbouring village. But it falls upon Param to save Deepali when Justin gets to know that Thakur has a grown-up daughter and wants to sleep with her. What does Param do? Does Robert allow Param to get away with his bold actions? Point to be noted is that all this happens around the time India attains Independence.
N.S. Ponkumar has penned an engaging love story and a story of oppression and slavery, set against the backdrop of India’s Independence. However, his story as well as his screenplay lose steam in the second half. The suspense about the news of India having attained Independence coming in the knowledge of the villagers after many hours, has been stretched so much that there’s not much charm left, more so because while the villagers don’t know that India has been freed from the shackles of the Britishers, the audience knows it all. Nevertheless, all is not lost post-interval. There are some good points in the second half, like, for instance, the scene in which Param confronts Justin. The revolt of the villagers in the climax is quite predictable and, therefore, not half as exciting as it ought to have been. Although it is a love story in which the love birds have to surmount a number of obstacles, it does not evoke emotions or make the audience cry. Dialogues (by G. Chandrasekar, A. Shivanand and Manish Bhawan) are very good.
Gautham Karthik acts well as Param. Revathy is quite good in her debut role as Deepali. Pugazh makes a fantastic mark as Param’s bosom pal, Chhota. Richard Ashton shines as British general Robert. Jason Sha looks very handsome and acts wonderfully as Justin. Madhusudan Rao has his moments as Thakur. Junior MGR makes his presence amply felt as the angry son of Thakur. Vijayalakshmi (as village grandmother Mariyammaa) lends terrific support. Solai (as the village grandfather) is nice. Bose Venkat (as militant Pasupathi), Neelimarani (as Param’s mother), David (as the police inspector), T.S. Rajendran (as the villager), Porkodi (as Deepali’s mother), Kalaiyarasan (as the village shop person), Sabita Rai (as Seeniyamma), Sachana (as Chinnaponnu), Vishavraaj (as young Param) and Shivani (as young Deepali) provide decent support. Others are adequate.
N.S. Ponkumar’s direction is excellent. Sean Roldan’s music is quite appealing. Lyrics (Sajeev Sarathie) are alright. Song picturisations (by Dinesh and Leelavathikumar) are eye-filling. Sean Roldan’s background music is outstanding. Selvakumar S.K.’s cinematography is fantastic. Rajasekhar’s action and stunt scenes are thrilling but they are also gruesome and violent, because of which ladies and family audience will find it difficult to digest them. T. Santhanam’s sets are of a fine standard. Sudharsan’s editing is quite sharp but the second half could’ve been tighter. Dubbing is good.
On the whole, August 16 1947 has a good first half but doesn’t have a matching second half. This, coupled with the fact that awareness about the film is very low, will ensure that the film doesn’t do anything substantial at the box-office. Flop.
Released on 7-4-’23 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: poor. Opening: weak. …….Also released all over Opening was dull everywhere.