I enjoyed the short film with the same name which was crisper with a neat presentation and perhaps earned debutante director Arun Kumar a berth in Kollywood to set afloat his directorial venture into a feature. But has he taken into account the perils of making a feature film out of the script from its shorter counterpart is the bone of contention.
PP narrates the tale of an aged landlord (Jayaprakash) who has an obsession for a Fiat branded Premier Padmini car for reasons unknown. He engages Murugesan (Vijay Sethupathi) as the driver as he doesn't know to drive a car. From then on the bumpy ride in the story takes a placid and boring drive on the national highway about how the landlord learns driving and woos his old-lady love (a charmingly worked out old-world romance between Jayaprakash and Tulasi). There are certain subplots that encompass some forgettable moments about how circumstances force the landlord to part away with his obsessive vehicle, a half-basked romantic episode between Murugesan and Malarvizhi (Ishwarya Rajesh) with lazy interludes that just go through the motions and a whimsy bus driver who threatens to tarnish the brand name of the vehicle in the village.
Credits have to be given to the director for taking the road less traveled and for the mise en scène that was pulled off, thanks to the dexterous work of the art department. The village ethos, landlord’s house, the car…. all bring in a sense of nostalgia and makes one smell that period of time in which the story takes place… though no specific time has been mentioned, one would easily identify that period and can associate oneself with it. But the buck stops there as the story has been expanded beyond its elasticity thus making it lose steam even before it tries to take off.
The foremost flaw lies in the lack of establishment of the reason for the landlord’s obsession towards the vehicle. If that is forgivable then how can one make sense of the driver also being obsessed with the vehicle…? Also in due course the vehicle forms the center part of the film which was expected, but for that to remain as such, the audiences need to be drawn towards the narrative with at least a character sharing a sort of intimacy with the vehicle for a proper reason. In fact I would rate the yesteryear Rajinikanth starrer ‘Padikathavan’ to have established a better intimacy between the driver and the car (Lakshmi) when compared to this one where the central character is the car. Because of this blunder, the movie plundered into the deep without a trace of impact in the scenes that proceeded. All we ended up was with a half-hearted attempt that had some artistic visuals and decent music.
Performances from the main characters were good, especially Thulasi as the landlord’s wife looted the screen space, while Vijay Sethupathi and Jayaprakash were also equally impressive in their performances. However, an advise to Vijay Sethupathi would be to put his versatile image on track as his versatility is drying up with respect to choosing roles and consequently his Kollywood vehicle would soon be slowing down the lane. Balasaravanan as ‘Peedai/Peruchali’ evoked some laughter which was short lived.
The movie can be enjoyed on television as there is every possibility that this would get a slot in some premier TV channel for the forthcoming festivals or special occasion.
PS: Also there were a gang of girls seated behind my row, who were really enthusiastic to pass comment for every scene that was supposed to pull an emotional string or two. That was irritating at times but the comments were largely enjoyable, but nevertheless made the experience a bit too farcical at time :)
Verdict: Below Average
Rating: 2 / 5
.jpg)