After ‘Pasanga’, a genre for kids in Kollywood has been experiencing a void until a few months back when ‘Goli Soda’ made a mark. But that was more of a teen action drama with commercial elements tucked into its subtext and was expected to play out for the masses. Now that PPP was originally pitched as a film for kids, but the nature of the narrative and story firmly places it in the thriller / adventure genre. A good attempt at taking a risky shot at making a debut by director Halitha Shameem.
It’s a summer holiday. A trio of kids bring evil men to justice with their tricks and unconventional knack of doing things. How do they do it - well it ranges from scaring the evil men with some ghostly tactics to starting an anonymous ham radio station and blowing the trumpets loud and clear to the people in the village of the atrocities of the evil doers. What lacks in here is the basic logic and pace.
The first half takes its own sweet time to unwind, establishing unnecessary details about the kids’ day to day life, their interactions and the likes, which lacked the zing as it was in ‘Pasanga’. The basic flaw lay in the neutral Tamil dialect that was spoken by the kids and some of the other characters in the movie - as a result we don’t get a sense of the place and time the story takes place since we are immediately withdrawn from the narrative. However, the character sketch of the kids - a nerdy one, a goofy one and a budding Romeo have been done diligently. Also the senior who help the kids when in need was a good character to befriend on screen.
Another major drawback were the innumerable songs that were thrust into the narrative without a solid purpose. After a lackluster opening, the screenplay gathered pace during the interval, but then again lost steam, wandered aimlessly, before settling down for a tame and cliched climax which was not exciting in anyway. There was not a single scene that had the potential to garner a clap or a whistle - a plot for a potential edge-of-the-seat thriller has been wasted down the drain mainly because of a careless narrative.
Technically the film was just about fine - certain camera angles by Manoj Paramahamsa, who also happens to be the producer of the film were awe inspiring, but apart from that there was hardly anything which was noteworthy.
The film is a strong contender to be telecast in television in the next few weeks and might be even screened at certain festivals under the kids’ genre, so please watch it only to support such attempts!
Verdict: Below Average!
Rating: 2 / 5
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