sesht
Well, though this released earlier this year, I missed it, and was able to finally catch it, courtesy BIFFES'14.A charming, old-school, lazily-paced sentimental drama, that revolves around the material attachment the leads form to a classic car, this one's quirky and weird, but don't be fooled by its premise, since, in spite of retaining all the frills typically associated with mainstream potboilers, in terms of pace-breaking songs (thankfully, no one devolves into song-and-dance, though each song completes its full runtime to the movie's detriment, IMO, since they're not as catchy as turns perhaps by a Santhosh Narayanan or a Nivas Prasanna) and twists designed to tug at one's heart-strings, (thankfully just stopping short of getting into full-blown tearjerker mode).What I liked: The smashing of the good daughter caricature that's a signature in all movies within this genre, with the good ol' daughter in this turning out to be anything but. Also curious was the mother-daughter dynamic, which was puzzling, yet gloriously refreshing.The side romance track, which sometimes threatens to overwhelm the main track, finally does Not take mainstage, and I was pleasantly surprised to note that aspect. The aspect of how our materialistic urges dictate our every interaction, (mostly) forcing us into stuff we'd not actually do, has been depicted wonderfully, with each of the characters showing a subtly varying facet of that with the 2 extremes being the mom and daughter duo (along with their curious dynamic) and the male leads falling somewhere in-between. The best part? Everyone remaining unapologetic about that right until the end, and even going forward. It is rare for a mainstream drama to fully embrace that, and for that alone, I'd give whatever points that the makers deserve, forgiving the other transgressions when analyzed from that kinda perspective. Performances: Sethupathi has been consistently good in all his efforts, and this one's no different. The titular 'Pannaiyar', essayed by Jayaprakash, is solid, as always, and is a treat to watch in every scene he inhabits. The comic track is typical of a mainstream potboiler, and painted in broad strokes, with quite a bit of physical gags thrown in, and I guess it's better than most, but did Not work for me. If it were not for the fact that its written into the screenplay esp. for the final denouement, I'd have done away with it altogether, had I had the ear of the editor. Dinesh ('Cuckoo') and Sneha are good in their respective cameos, but it was not necessary to have roped them in, since it did not do anything much for the plot itself. * The revelation, though I've seen her before, in characters that are relegated to the background in mainstream Indian cinema, is Thulasi.Her rendering of a loving wife and mother-figure is typical, and she gets no assistance from the writing whatsoever, but she's made of sterner stuff, and makes the role her own. Award-worthy is an understatement, since she successfully steals every scene she's in, from stalwarts such as Sethupathi and Jayaprakash. No mean feat. I'd re-watch it to just focus on how much she's had fun making this. To me, this will always be Thulasi's movie. And that's a good thing.The background score is apt, but the time-wasting foreground scores are something this flick could've done without completely.All in all, a good-great watch, for all the reasons articulated above, in spite of its various/many shortcomings.
