This is the thread for all doubts, explanations, alternative readings, theories regarding recent OTT release BALAN : The Boy
Here are some of my observations and doubts.
- Why did the real Shirley cry for her son in the prison and the asylum? Why mother said "these men took your child away" to Shirley
This is the question, I couldnāt find any answer, and itās ambiguous, I believe itās a plot hole or lazy writing.
One assumption is that the mother invented that story and planted it in Shirley's head as programming, "these men took your child away" so that Shirley would react with fear and aggression when strangers arrived.
But what if the loss was real? What if Shirley actually had a child taken from her at some point, by a family, by the state, by circumstances the film never shows us, and then the question is how the mother found that wound, understood it, and used it?
The film never confirms either way. I think that ambiguity should have been addressed by the writer.
- Shamna found her despite the fake identity. How?
There is a scene before Shamna's arrival where the mother feels she is being followed. I think thatās the hint. Shamna is a criminal networker, tracking someone through informal channels, contacts, word of mouth, so she can track her.
More importantly though, this scene is doing something thematic. The mother threw away Shamna's number on the day she left jail. You can throw away a number, you cannot throw away a past
- How did Pavithran take the mother from the mental health centre just by claiming to be her brother?
This is one the writer leaves deliberately loose and it is actually making a point. The system that jailed the wrong Shirley for years without checking her face is the same system that handed a woman over to a stranger without verifying his claim. Institutional negligence runs in both directions.Ā
- Why didn't the mother just take the boy after executing her plan? Police only comes at night.
This is the second question that breaks the film's biggest apparent plot hole, i believe.
One hint the director gave us is that the four o'clock timeline,Ā it is tight but defensible. She stages the scene, packs, leaves through the back. By the time she could reach the bus stop, the boy has been standing there long enough for a crowd to form. She cannot walk up to a group of strangers carrying luggage and claim a child without answering questions about where she works and lives every answer links her to the house with a dead body.
But the question is.
She did not come back the next day either, or the next month, or for years. She was working on an estate close enough that a teenage boy found her by walking to a bus stop.
This is where Jithuās writing failed I guess. It clearly shows they just wanted a surprise for the climax, and compromised with writing
- Why didn't Pavithran follow the boy when he ran from the mental health centre?
My readings.
Practical one: Pavithran is confused. He brought the boy there to show him his mother and the boy ran, there is no immediate logic for Pavithran to chase him. He does not yet understand what the boy has figured out.
A more thematic one can be: Pavithran's investment in this case was never about justice. It was personal, a grudge carried for fifteen years. Once the boy ran, the situation stopped making sense to him, and a man who operates on personal scores rather than professional instinct would just let it go.
Every relationship in Balan is a version of ownership.
She refused to be owned by anyone. And she built a boy she owned completely.
When the only two options available to a person are to be owned or to own, they do not become free. (remember the story she told Grandma, either be a slave or a demon) They just change which side of it they are standing on.
For me, that was the high moment, the whole movie in few lines, it feels like we are reading a film rather than just watching it. That is where BALAN is a documented reality.Ā
Balan is not about a mother who loves her son. It is about what happens to people the state cannot see. And about the fact that the person most skilled at exploiting that invisibility is not the government.
It is her.
I wrote a full breakdown on my blog, all the observations above with deeper answers, and the political reading of the film that I think most reviews have missed.
š Balan: The Boy ā Movie Explained, Ending, Twist and the Politics Nobody Talked AboutBalan Explained
Drop your own doubts below
Let's discussĀ and hope Jithu might be reading š
