Pa Paandi (a) Power Paandi Movie Review | A touching journey of 62 yo Youngster

There have been umpteen number of movies in Tamil cinema about grandparents and parents and how to treat them and how not to treat them. Even Raj Kiran\’s own Manja Pai and a part of Rajini Murugan and even his best acting performance till date, Thavamaai Thavamirunthu portrayed the same thing and stressed upon the value of old people and how to respect them and keep them happy. But, as far as we know, there haven\’t been a movie that talks about what they actually want? Do they want to be just respected and loved and cared for as they cared for us or deep down, do they have their own dreams?

Wunderbar Films\’ Pa. Paandi (a) Power Paandi speaks of this particular thought. What if people have their own dreams and aspirations? Do they want to be glorified babysitters even when they actually love to do it?

Writer – Director Dhanush has to be lauded for this thought process and providing a positive and refreshing movie based on this thought. Also, the producer in him has to be appreciated for choosing a simple and enjoyable story which has elements of the mass movie and yet remains soulful. Let\’s have a detailed Currently Globally review on the Tamil movie.

Plot:

Power Paandi (Raj Kiran) is a retired cinema stunt master, who is a legend to current generation stunt masters. He lives with his only son Raghavan\’s (Prasanna) family after his wife passes away. Raghavan is married to Prema (Chaya Singh) and has two kids, Dhruv (Master Raghavan of Kannamma song fame) and Shaksha (Baby Chavi). Power Paandi has a young friend (Rinson of Vijay TV fame) with whom he confides his feelings and one person who can understand him better.

Power Paandi lives for his son and grandchildren but, has a dissatisfaction throughout and his bold and friendly nature brings out a lot of troubles to the family. At a point of time, bottled-up emotions burst and Power Paandi decides to leave the family for a soul-searching journey. What happens next forms the crux of the story.

Performances:

Raj Kiran is an extraordinary actor whose talents were wasted throughout his young age and was revived, thanks to Cheran\’s Thavamaai Thavamirunthu. He has lived his character as Power Paandi and has given a touching performance. He has performed his character so well and he makes the audience feel whatever the character feels. Particularly, his scenes with Revathi in the second part is laudable and even to drill down, the scene where he goes to visit Revathi at her house and the terrace scene. Just wow.

Revathy as old Poonthendral is realistic and her portrayal is easily likable and this character is just a walk on the cake for the talented artist of Mounaraagam. Prasanna seems to be too rigid and otherwise good actor seems to be artificial in most of the scenes except the climax and the scene where he yells at his colleague about the importance of picking up parents\’ calls. Chaya Singh does what she has been told to and the kids have done a neat job too. Rinson has good potential and his character is easily likable.

We have a lot of cameos in the movie as it is Dhanush\’s debut directorial and Dhanush himself plays the role of young Power Paandi and there isn\’t actually a lot of scope for the character. However, when even great Stan Lee loves to do a cameo in all Marvel Movies, why will not Dhanush want to do a role in his debut movie as a director? Madonna isn\’t a great choice for the periodic role and at most places, her casting looks odd in the 1960s village. We also have DD (of Vijay TV fame) as Revathi\’s daughter and she is damn casual in the role. Also, we have cameos from few directors of Dhanush, Gautham Menon, Balaji Mohan, and Velraj. Sentraayan, Vidyulekkha, and Roba Shankar also comes up in few scenes and does what they always do.

Technical:

Music is one of the backbones for this emotional ride and Sean Roldan proves his selection in the second half and his BGM blends with the proceedings and elevates the scenes\’ quality and \”Venpani Malare\” and \”Paarthen\” songs deserve a special mention for being the beautiful melodies they are. (But, have to admit that Paarthen has a Kuchi Kuchi Raakamma feel to it).

Cinematography by Velraj is neat and as always, Velraj is at his best during romance scenes and during the song sequences.

Editing is good but one feels the scenes could have been crispier in the mid-part of the movie and the flashback even. The color tone set for flashback is good but whenever there is red color in the scene, the colors look artificial and awkward due to this selected tone. This could have been avoided if a different tone was chosen or another simpler way, avoiding red in the dresses particularly for Madonna.

Our Thoughts:

Dhanush is incredibly talented and this movie is a feather in his cap and he deserves to be proud of it. The movie has fights, romance, comedy and everything a mass movie requires and has something more in it, a soul. Half part of the success lies with his successful casting, in particular, Raj Kiran and Revathi. The scenes are well thought of in second half and the dialogues are straightforward and meaningful. Dialogues are not too poetic or intelligent, but, realistic and relatable like Dhanush\’s lyrics.

The movie ends with a question that echoes throughout. When a middle aged person is left to be single due to circumstances, the society wants them to chose a partner but, why does the two-faced society doesn\’t think of the same possibility if the person is 50-60+? That\’s a good question to ask and it had a deep meaning. Kudos again Dhanush!

Even though the movie suffers few lag moments and few avoidable scenes like Gautham Menon\’s forced cameo, for a first-time moviemaker, this film is great and has a positivity to it. We sincerely wish Dhanush and the whole team for a grand success with this fine-made film with a great thought.

Scenes to look for:

-Rinson\’s question to Power Paandi in the terrace about his life.

-Power Paandi\’s date (if I may call so) with Poonthendral in Hyderabad – importantly for Raj Kiran and Revathi\’s performances.

-Power Paandi meeting Poonthendral at her terrace – for the performance, of course, and also, for intelligently written dialogues which are not over-the-top.

One Line:

Just watch this perfect positive summer movie with family – for the great thought, Raj Kiran, and Revathi, in the same order.

Our Rating: