Padikathavan

Gunslingers flying swords and blood-smeared bodies being tossed around clumsily – Padikathavan opens on a gory note and with intermittent break for love, romance, comedy and family, continues to sustain its violent self. Stripped bare of all its violence and love, the movie rather feels like a reincarnated version of Run, only that Run, with all its violence was rather believable and the love, real. The banal script is unpretentious in its intentions, however. It lacks clarity and cruises through the million-times-treaded path to culminate into a corny climax, made popular in recent times. The basic plot is pretty simple - Dhanush is a nonchalant youngster who as opposed to every single soul in the family, has no luck with studies. Addressed as Padikathavan by his family, he takes his role of fixing petty goons rather seriously when his family members crossroads with them. He accidently meets Tamanna and it is love at first sight – which is further substantiated by the duet song in less than 10 seconds of their first meet. A few clichés and songs later, she falls in love with him too. But Tamanna carries a deadly secret with her and Dhanush realizes that he has to fight for his right – Tamanna. Now that means thrashing out zillions of burly and makes-you-squirm-at-sight thugs single handedly. That’s not all – Dhanush has a rate for his head too since he earned the wrath of another blood hungry criminal accidentally. So hacking heads, slashing body parts and throwing grenades at four wheelers are dime a dozen in the movie. Not that those scenes are executed tastefully though. Dhanush’s love affair is clichéd but he’s largely had a field day. Be it annoying his father by cornering him, scheming plans with his friends to make Tamanna fall in love with him or simply in the stunt scenes – Dhanush has enjoyed his job. But the dialogues, about cussing parents for forcing in studies, could set a bad example. Although her role demands her to break into songs every time she appears in the frame, Tamanna shows convincing abilities. But she has no reason to use it in this movie, sadly. Prathap Pothen, Shayaji Shinde, Suman and many others appear like junior artistes in the movie. A lion’s share of the movie’s time is occupied by the grizzly looking tough guys with their red costumes. Vivek, on the other hand, takes possession of the second half and there appears to be no driving factor in the script for the most part. Mani Sharma’s tunes are catchy and the rerecording, earsplitting. On the whole, Padikathavan struggles to identify itself between comedy and violence and ends up not being both. Verdict – Only for the strong stomachs!