Movie: Pichaikkaran
Direction: Sasi
Cast: Vijay Antony, Satna Titus
Music: Vijay Antony
Cinematographer: Prasanna Kumar
Editor: Veera Senthil Raj
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rating: ∗∗∗
What is it about: It’s a story of a rich young man, who gives up his luxurious life for 48 days and live as a beggar as an offering to god in return for his mother’s life. It stars Vijay Antony in the lead directed by Sasi.
Why it’s disappointing: The film is too easy, for instance everything happens so easily for Vijay Antony. A character who is a multi-millionaire, diverges in to a totally different life gels with people in that life like they were waiting for his arrival. The writing is quite lazy, director Sasi holds on to blind faith like the lead character does and continues to move ahead with a very average approach.
Vijay Antony has a stiff hold on expressions, which has to ease off at least in the upcoming movies. He’s really great in choosing scripts, just the same way he needs to explore the nuances of acting as well, making a complete package.
The unacceptable villains who are put there just to showcase the masala hero of Tamil cinema by beating them to pulp. The songs were quite forced and did not gel with the film.
And finally a sub plot on illegal drug testing on mental patients, which was definitely not required in this film.
What to watch out for: You must wonder, if the writing is not up to the mark and also the characters are loosely packed, what makes “Pichaikkaran” tick with the audience? That would be the dialogues, which were crisply written and impeccably timed. The dialogues were placed well at regular intervals, that it received huge applause and cheers from the audience.
Every dialogue was an amazing one, you can’t help but laugh out loud and at the same time thought provoking. There are many instances in the movie, which can be called the landmark moments, because there quite a few available. For instance, a beggar calling FM radio station and explaining the RJ on how to control the “Black Money”, that was one hell of an explanation given in lay man term. Then comes another instance where Vijay Antony rips an Audi car owner to pieces with his sharp words. One dialogue which really cracked me up at the drop of it was “Onna Paatha Annai Theresa ku kooda Anbu varaadhu.” There are many dialogues which are crunched out during the period when Vijay Antony lives the life beggar were beautifully written, which kind of shadows the ill written script.
The pre-climax sequence was done pretty well where Vijay Antony turns from Rags-Riches. The female lead of the film has a subtle role and she did what was expected of her, there was nothing much available for her to explore with that role.
Finally the credit goes to the supporting artists who played the roles of beggars, because they did that convincingly and were beautiful actors.
The background score by Vijay Antony was a good one. Cinematography by Prasanna Kumar was great which was well supported by Veera Senthil Raj’s editing.
Verdict: Sasi got lazy with screenplay, but was active with dialogues. This saved the day by making “Pichaikkaran” a worthy watch. Definitely worth a watch for the witty dialogues churned mostly by the supporting characters of the film.
