Former President and renowned scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam always spoke about how the ‘untapped’ potential of the youth of India should be utilized properly to make India a developed country. He constantly urged youngsters to dream and stated that developed India will be a network of prosperous villages and not cities. In one of his speeches at the IAS Officers’ Academy, Dr Kalam spoke about a young man from a Thoothukudi village and his scientific innovation which is what the Tamil film Lineman is all about.
The plot
Based on a real story, Lineman, directed by debutant M Udhayakumar, narrates the story of Senthil (debutant Jegan Balaji), a young man living in Kambikattu village in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu. The entire village works in the salt pans for eight months of the year to earn their livelihood and for the remaining four months, borrow money from the owner of the salt pans, Thalamuthan, to survive. Senthil’s father, Subbiah (Charle), is in a slightly better position as he is an electric lineman in the government electricity department and manages to make Senthil a mechanical engineer. However, the road for Senthil and this village is not easy – the village has no proper roads, no transport and is at the mercy of Thalamuthan.
Now Thalamuthan, who supplies salt to the chemical factories in the surrounding area, is known to steal electricity for his salt pans which results in numerous deaths due to constant work on the electrical lines by the linemen. Senthil’s mother, too, died due to an electric shock because of these illegal lines and Subbiah’s constant endeavour is to tackle the illegal theft of electricity. Meanwhile, Senthil develops a device called the auto-sun switch where the street lights come on when the sun sets and turn off when the sun rises, thus reducing the dangers to the linemen. The entire movie is about how Senthil struggles to get his project approved by the collector and constantly petitions for the chief minister of Tamil Nadu to assess his project and implement it to save lives. But Thalamuthan and his coterie try everything from threats to murders to prevent this. What happens finally?
What works and what doesn’t
Lineman revolves around Senthil and Subbiah and the difficulties of the men and women in the village. It ranges from a powerful and abusive landowner, patriarchy, domestic violence, corrupt government officials, corrupt companies, and so on. While on one hand Senthil is trying to get his project sanctioned and writes hundreds of letters to government officials, he is not fully vested in the issues of those working in the salt pans. Those working in the salt pans try to protest against their working conditions but that is not explored in depth either. And this is the core problem with the film. The director doesn’t delve deep enough into these aspects and connect them seamlessly.
While the death of Senthil’s mother may be the reason why he develops the auto-sun switch, the emotional connect is never established. Thus, Senthil comes across as more selfish in trying to achieve his dream rather than working in tandem with the people of Kambikattu to alleviate their problems because he is not an activist either.
Lineman is a well-intentioned rural social drama but it sadly remains superficial and doesn’t engage you enough.
Lineman is now streaming on Aha OTT platform.