Pandi Film Review

“Before I was considered a fool . . . now a madman.   When will I just be Pandi?                 – Pandyan (Pandi) Kumaraswamy.

 November 6, 2013  – Home movies by their very nature give us an unedited glimpse into the personal lives of subjects we may not otherwise be privy to. The promise and creativity exhibited by Pandi in his early years could not foreshadow the tragic sequence of events that would leave his family with a crippling loss due in part to societal stigmas and a late medical intervention.  The silence around Pandi’s death lasted for years until a script he wrote along with VHS and Super 8 footage was found in the basement of his older brother Ponnu. This  became the seed that helped illuminate the Pandi very few knew.  In a strange way, Pandi is giving us in death what he couldn’t provide us in life, a script to film adaptation aptly titled, Pondy.

Director, Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam’s powerful and insightfully crafted documentary exposes both her personal journey and the hardships of a quiet yet driven filmmaker and the rippling effect his condition had on the family.  You see Pandi was more than just a story of a struggling filmmaker, he was Ponnambalam’s uncle too.

A year before his death could be considered the culmination of Pandi success.  July 26, 1997 was the day he completed his last script in Chennai, India. He penned the story of a successful fashion designer who hates communism after communists killed his wife and he is forced to flee Mumbai.  After his tragic death he returns as Jesus Christ seeking to write a modern testament of the Bible.  The  graphic and expressive qualities of animation are on full display as Animator Jessica Palmer transforms Pandi’s script to life weaving beautiful sequences throughout the documentary.  It is this story and other untold mysteries about her uncle that lead Ponnu and daughter Saroja to investigate her father’s brother.

This non-linear narrative reset itself back to 1993 when Pandi arrived in the Tamil-Canadian household of his brother’s family in Waterloo, Ontario.  The family pressures to make money both in India and Canada were unending.  Fortunately, the career advantages of his newly adopted homeland afforded opportunities that were not available to him in Chennai.  The purchase of a camcorder reignited Pandi filmmaking exploits.  You see, the seeds of filmmaking were planted early on.  As a child, where other children saw a chalkboard, Pandi saw a movie screen.

At first, jobs in restaurants and factories allowed him to maintain his independence and pursue his creative side in Toronto through potential opportunities at Ryerson’s Film School.  When he accepted an 80 hour per week position at Magna it came at a price.  The money and security allowed him to show Immigration Canada that he could afford to bring his fiancé over, but, it was at this time that cracks in his veneer showed early signs of paranoia in the form of hearing voices. Long hours only exacerbated the condition.

Pandi – Trailer from Maria-Saroja on Vimeo.

The intersection between unbridled creativity and his real life responsibilities made it increasingly difficult for family to determine if this was just Pandi’s imagination formulating new material for a script or a real undiagnosed mental health issue at play.  Although Pandi completed the script in 15 days, it became abundantly clear that his subsequent letters to family echoed an incoherent narrative of confusion.  Loneliness and medical interventions lead to his first hospitalization.   An early diagnosis of schizophrenia morphed into a bipolar disorder.   Ponnambalam’s use of Pandi’s April 20th, 1998 Medical Certificate was an effective device for highlighting the seeds of his peril. The litany of prescribed medications, shock treatment, hospitalization and out-patient follow ups made it easy for anyone to see that Pandi was more than just “depressed”.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5:  The stigma of mental illness all too often becomes the quiet war that resides in the furthest reaches of some families.  Pandyan (Pandi) Kumaraswamy’s brought that war home to his Tamil-Canadian family and Director, Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam highlights, not only the stigma of the condition, but the coping mechanisms one must employ just to survive. A collection of stills, stories and  found footage provides us the context for understanding.  The mastery of Pandi’s final narrative brought to life through animation showed that even in darkness the mind can still create. And it is because of his creativity that new and vibrant seeds are growing within Director, Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam.

Final Thought: Societal stigmas towards mental illness are still hard to crack.

Author: T-Mak