‘My Lord’ movie critique Sasikumar, Chaithra Achar power Raju Murugan’s sharp social satire

“I wilted every time I saw a crop wither,” said renowned Tamil saint and philosopher Ramalinga Swamigal, or ‘Vallalar’ as he is popularly known. This resounding statement is a part of Vallalar’s Jeevakarunyam philosophy, which speaks about the need to ‘see god in all living things.’ This torch of humanity is also the seed of writer-director Raju Murugan’s latest Tamil film, My Lord, a work of social commentary on the pivotal need for affordable healthcare for all in India, and how the corrupt wouldn’t hesitate to even feed on the poor’s flesh. One fine day in Manapparai, Kovilpatti, Vallalar devotee Thirunavukkarasu finds a young boy named Muthu Chirpi picking at scraps for food. He takes him in and raises him as his own, along with his daughter, Susheela, and other destitutes under his care. Little would he know that when Muthu and Susheela grew up, they would fight through unspeakable afflictions to light Jeevakarunyam like a wildfire. An assured mix of social satire and political commentary, My Lord has the best of Raju Murugan we know, but it also hints at where he has always fallen short. How My Lord introduces many of its characters either piques your interest with its irony or leaves you in stitches. A pious and religious man from a low-income household, with a stitch across his abdomen, leaves for work, where he would feed off the needs of the helpless and coerce them into selling off their kidneys. Meanwhile, a powerful Central Minister, Sujatha Mohan (Asha Sarath), who has all the power and money at her disposal, suffers since there aren’t many kidney donors who match her unique H/H blood group. She is forced to measure even the water she consumes every day. Surely, she can ask her two children to donate a kidney, right? Raju Murugan compels you to sit right up when Sujatha tells us of the venom she has fed into the minds of her two children — details here are better left unsaid. Meanwhile, Sujatha’s minions return with the findings of two possible donors whose blood group matches hers: a poor woman in Bihar, and Muthu Chirpi (Sasikumar), a man from Kovilpatti. A still from ‘My Lord’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement When we first meet Muthu, he is a dead body — a corpse that wakes up and belts out a dance to cause a stir at a nearby political gathering. It’s a theatrical display to seek justice for the bizarre cruelty that he and his wife, Susheela (Chaithra Achar), have been subjected to — the government has somehow issued two death certificates in their names. With the help of a local journalist named Na Kathirvelan (Somasundaram), Muthu is attempting to gain the attention of the powers that be, not only to solve his problem, but also shed light on how the system is a vortex that plunders and leeches off the helpless for the benefit of the privileged. What happened to Muthu and Susheela, and the bridge that connects Muthu to Sujatha and