KOCHI: Puthan Panam's greatest strength, unsurprisingly, is its lead actor's suaveness. Mammootty, as Nithyananda Shenoy, looks undeniably worship-worthy, as he mouths the Kasargod accent with finesse and is every inch the underworld don. But, while you get carried away by the actor's perfection, it dawns on you that it is his charisma that propels the movie, rather than the half-cooked script presumably rooted on demonetisation.
Shenoy finds himself embezzled when a business rival Chandra Mohan (Sai Kumar) pays him off Rs 25 crore an hour before demonetisation hit the country. A vengeful Shenoy flies back to Kochi to get back his money, but things spiral out of control when Chandra Mohan is killed. Shenoy and his henchmen must set things right and embark on a journey.
Puthan Panam has a promising start. Without a particularly didactic tone, it shows us how demonetisation has suddenly left us perplexed. A rich guy (Joy Mathew) is upset about how he is going to change his thick wads of cash hidden under the flooring, while a common man wonders what to do with a lone Rs 1000 note he has. Now, while we await some twists and electrifying moments, loosens up the plot. The focus shifts on to a gun, and the sub plot takes over.
Consequence: we see little of Mammootty and even little of things that hooked us into the movie in the first place. While Ranjith's 'Indian Rupee' was all about plot twists, Puthan Panam is pretty plain in that department. While Indian Rupee's protagonist JP (Prithviraj) had his dark sides, Shenoy is your clichéd kind of thug, who rarely switches on his don mode (it somewhat makes us squirm to see the antics played out to retrieve the gun).
Puthan Panam does have a slew of characters. Much to our delight, we even get to see Mamukkoya, Baiju, Indrans and Siddique sharing some screen space. This, however, can't be said about the women. Other than Ineya, who plays a Tamil woman, there is very little of feminine grace in Puthan Panam.
The film could have been much better, had it adhered to the main plot. And, this one sets the classic example of a misleading trailer. However, Mammootty's don moves won't disappoint his loyal fans. There is something for them to rejoice, especially the climax sequence when the megastar is seen throwing powerful punches.