A hard-hitting anthology which relies on actors for creating the impact
It’s quite clear from the title as to what to expect from an anthology like ‘Paava Kadhaigal’. Except for Vignesh Sivan, the other directors have some affinity towards violence. Vetrimaran, quite obviously, Sudha, in may be a classical manner and Gautam, in a stylish way. With Gautam stating that he’s wanting to do an anthology with a number of directors, this looked like the right time and things seem to have worked for them. The OTT movies are still in a rebellious phase and directors want to make movies which they can’t showcase in theatres. May be when it settles and directors think about giving the best product outside the rebellious nature, it may grow up to be better. No complaints against violence, in fact I’m a fan of it, but to showcase something just because it looks to be an easier forum is not agreeable.
Thangam
The opening animation was quite interesting, showing the way of life of women. I thought it’s specific to ‘Thangam’ but it gets repeated for all the shorts. I felt it’d be one such story initially but it turned out to be quite a different one. Sathaar (Kalidas Jayaram) steals the show right from scene one. In fact, the first shot of him is the best shot of entire movie. Throughout the first film, he easily brings a certain warmth in his character. I only wished that his part existed longer. Shanthnu Bhagyaraj too looks like a better actor now, there is some positive change in him which is happy to see. Otherwise, it’s a mundane love story which was made in a hard-hitting way. Wish it dealt with the emotions of Sathaar rather than societal impact. So, in the end it was predictable and Sathaar dying was unacceptable. Just because you use a cuss word it doesn’t become a great ending.
Love Panna Uttranum
Probably the only director who looked out of place in the list. Not a big fan of him and his style of humor but this short was a relief from others. Anjali looked ravishing. I’m already a big fan of her but recently, after watching Peranbu, my fondness for her grew further. It’s the same here too. She was prolific and insanely hot too. It was nice to see an actress from south ready to take up bold roles. A type of role reserved only for the Apte’s and Koechlin’s. Anyways Koechlin was also there but she was as clueless in the film as how she was in Aadhilakshmi’s (Anjali) house. Again, it’s the sidekick Jaffer Sadiq who scores better than others. The climax pun was too cheesy to digest, except for Kalki’s swear. May be a lorry crashing them and Jaffer smiling would have been a more impactful end shot.
Vaanmagal
Probably the weakest story of all. Gautam as an actor is nice but not in his own film where he has to be the lead. He couldn’t handle such a powerful role. Simran, who reminded of ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ in her get up, too, couldn’t provide much impact with her role because the writing was such. The dialogues were corny and filmmaking was literal. There is nothing much actors could do. The story too was a regulation one. When Simran was getting ready for the trailer shot with that dialogue about ‘women’s pride’, I hated the film for such negativity but when it doesn’t happen, I hated it even more. More so because it was added in trailer to make an impact. That’s just cheap way of making film. At least the other directors should have insisted and not included the scene just for shock value.
Oor Iravu
The newspaper cutting in ‘Vaanmagal’ showed the amount of respect GVM has on Vetrimaran. But I wish it could have been shown in a different way, may be just the wordings, it would have been more interesting. Anyways, thankfully, the film doesn’t play the climax trick like ‘Vaanmagal’ where the heroine gets saved. Sai Pallavi and Prakash Raj were terrific, the last ten minutes was gut wrenching, something like the flashback action sequence of ‘Asuran’. He’s really good at writing impactful scenes and almost not in a cheap manner too. Something which the series aims but may be because of the ‘Sairat’ impact, nothing comes to that level. Also, the final animation spoilt the impact. I was praying for the film to end just like that but it didn’t’.
My rating would be.
Vaanmagal < Oor Iravu < Love Panna Uttranum < Thangam
constantscribbles 