With significant presence in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa, we have now planted roots in major cities in the West. As many of us are aware, Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world with a rich literature, history and identity going back over 2000 years. It may be a surprise, but after English, Tamil is our 2 nd biggest language group in the TDSB, with 12, 272 students of Tamil Heritage, roughly 5.5% of our total student body. Thus, it was in this light, that it was a pleasure and a personal privilege for me to pass the motion to recognize January as Tamil Heritage Month at the Toronto District School Board. As children and youth coming of age in the 90s, depictions of our community in the media were not positive and we didn’t see ourselves in the mainstream, while we were taught European history as civilization in our schools. Such feelings were not easy growing up as part of the 2 nd generation in the diaspora. However, in retrospect, it is easy to understand why it instilled such pride in us to see him take the mantle of leadership of one of the world’s biggest, most valuable and innovative companies in the world. Upon finding free wi-fi on our layover at Heathrow, I was surprised to see how viral the news had become in our community. This past August, just before I stepped onto a plane to Europe for a family wedding, I posted on Facebook the then breaking news that Google had chosen a Tamil guy, Sundararajan Pichai, to become its new CEO. Underscoring the importance of Tamil education and instilling pride in Tamil heritage, Parthi has shared a few words in preparation for the TDSB’s Inaugural Tamil Heritage Month Celebration this Saturday at Woburn Collegiate Institute. With approximately 12, 272 students enrolled in the TDSB who claim Tamil heritage, January has been distinctly marked to remember, celebrate and educate all students on Tamil culture, heritage, language, history and traditions. While serving as a trustee, last October, Parthi played an instrumental role in recognizing January as Tamil Heritage Month at the school board. It is Vijay Sethupathi who hands in a very good performance and makes this worth a watch.Parthi Kandavel is a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee serving Scarborough Southwest. On the whole, Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir is a laudable yet incomplete presentation of the lives of refugees. The visual and editing treatment of the film is functional. Nivas Prasanna’s music is a great addition to the film and the composer backs it up with some emotional cues in the background, with a special mention to the climax sequence. However, it is nice to see late actor Vivek in a good role with his own dubbing. However, it is worth lauding the weight that the Sri Lankan refugee struggle has been given in the film, and it works through Vijay Sethupathi’s earnest performance that is matured throughout, and also excellent in the scenes where he has to recite long dialogues.Īpart from Vijay Sethupathi, the other performances in the film pass muster. While there are some emotional moments that manage to tug our heartstrings and pull in our attention, the film beats the intensity with some generic writing on the other hand that dilutes the actual effect that it needs to create. Roghanth does have a strong plot in hand but his writing and narrative are both inconsistent and fail to pack the punch that a story like this needs. The film also has a thriller angle where Vijay Sethupathi’s character comes face-to-face with that of Magizh Thirumeni, with a reasoning behind it. While the first half introduces us to the characters and also brings in a needless romantic angle, the second half is the better of the two and it does throw the spotlight on the refugees, their wants and needs, and the tough situations they have to go through. The film is built with incidents, anecdotes, and monologues that try to bring out the struggles of such refugees in every angle possible. The entire film is based on the journey of Punithan (Vijay Sethupathi), a man who is sent off to safer grounds but later changes paths and travels in search of an identity, while also paying attention to his never-ending love for music. In the same lineup comes Venkata Krishna Roghanth’s YOYK, a film that brings about the struggles of a Sri Lankan refugee trying to find an identity of his own. Films on Sri Lanka and its refugees have come out quite a lot in Tamil cinema, and we have classics such as Kannathil Muthamittal going all the way until the underrated ones like Kuppi.
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