SincereFinest
disgusting, overrated, pointless
TeenzTen
An action-packed slog
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Lollivan
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
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.
Kumar Mani
Pannaiyarum Padminiyum – A journey of a gentleman. An ample of film-makers have often interested to show us commercial films enhanced with technologies, some auteur prefer to offer us a biopic, and some, in a rare occasion, would like to take us to many years back by showing a captivating period film. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum is one such film where we're allowing ourselves to live in 1980s. However, the film has no room to telling us what the milieu was and what life people had lived. Instead, it shows us love, passion, predilections, and aesthetics of a man towards a car, Padmini. The central conceit of the film is neither the love, nor the compassion but everything. A Pannaiyar (played by Jayaprakash), landlord of the village, venerate person in the village is given a car, from his relative, to look after during his absence. That's where the film takes-off. But, nobody in the village knows how to drive a cab except, the films third-hero, Vijay Sethupathy. He was merely hired and literally adopted and his wife (played by Thulasi). Pannaiyarum Padminiyum doesn't have so much of convoluted cast. It has a few, who everyone to be a people we see in our daily life. Pannaiyar, his wife, car driver, and his assistant. The movie not only has a poignant sentiment, but the love between Pannaiyar, and his wife have portrayed well. Each wants others to be happy, so they make compromises in their chores, but they don't. If there are people who don't know how the actual and simple past life were happier than the present fast-running-technology real (fake precisely) world, then Pannaiyar and his wife can be taken as an edifying and quintessence to show them. Vijay Sethupathy, a kind of person, who doesn't interest in his family but love this Pannaiyar family. He drives the Padmini (the car), teaches Pannaiyar how to drive a car. He fell for a girl (played by Aishawariya), they both had duet songs, romance, intimacy scenes which is another sub-plots of the movie, those were meticulously composed by the new-comer Arun Kumar. Even if this intriguing love sequences weren't included, this film is still pleasant to watch, considering the main backdrop, the car. Pannaiyar, played by ingenious Jayaprakash. I wonder if there is anyone else who can carry this role, to cast emotions, love, on-screen then this adroit Jayaprakash. Scenes involving him and his wife were salubrious to watch. We once had Late Raghuvaran as a character artist, and then we saw Prakash Raj in different roles, who is now drifted to direction, so Jayaprakash is the replacement. We've seen Jayaprakash as a police-officer, a teacher, a villain, a detective and whatnot. But, in future, if anyone asks you "who is Jayaprakash", and you reply would be "Hey, he is the man who played as Pannaiyar." How often do we get to see songs theaters without forcing us take break in-between? But, music by Justin Prabhakar should be laudable for his indomitable attempt to give a mellifluous, dulcet songs and lingering "Unakkaga Poranthen" flute as BGM. His discerning in selecting singers is the only reason for these tripping tunes. Since the film is set on 1980s, the cinematography had to lot of work in lighting, after all, that is his only job. And the art, sketched by CS Balachander, the same person who done for Bala's Paradesi, here too we see the same hut, same street, what we had seen in Paradesi – only the artists different. But, a commendable effort by him and his team not to show non-grainy places. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum is the most beautiful film made in this year, where we don't have an opportunity to hate it. Could the film have been shorter? Yes. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum – A journey of a gentleman.
SRI RAMANAN K
"Pannaiyarum Padminiyum" is a slow moving hilarious tale of a car and its owner..Though the story is very simple you cannot find any moment which is boring. Plot- Pannaiyar aspires to buy a car and he get one as a gift.He faces many consequences and tackles them with a skillful driver.It is a love story not between Homo Sapiens but between a man and his car.Vijay Sethupathi has performed excellently in the comic scenes as well as sentimental scenes. Jayaprakash is the man apt for the role and has given his best.Director Arun Kumar deserves an applause for his efforts. The film also portrays a love song between a elderly married couple unlike other films. The Music Director has given what the film needs. There is no violence in the film which fascinates all kinds of people. A man can watch this film with his whole family and the director has made it so well so that everyone likes it.This film is one of a kind and deserves a rating of 7/10. Have a comfortable journey while watching the film !
Karthic Muthuraman
This movie was something completely unexpected, these days movies are so much hyped n then turns out to be crap but this movie surprised me to the core. It was wonderful... a must watch. Every character in this movie have acted so well that I can't point out whose better. Everyone has given their best expressions in every scene. The comedy has worked out pretty well in the movieSNEHA was a unexpected pleasant surprise...!! Very glad that she's back into acting after marriage. I hope she continues her acting.Too good movie...you'll have a wonderful smile throughout the movie. I can't think of 1 mistake in this movie. I loved it n I'm pretty sure you will too.I'm really proud that this is a TAMIL movie n more proud where the Tamil movies are reaching in terms of quality scripts. Let more movies keep coming like this !!!