'Panithuli' (Tamil)
Directors: Natti Kumar, Dr Jay
Cast: Ganesh Venkatraman, Kalpana Pandit, Shobana
A team of US-based Indians who debuted with the suspense thriller Mei Porul have returned with this movie, again a thriller. Natty has scripted and produced it, apart from directing it with Jay.
It’s a romantic-psychological thriller about a Chennai guy Shiva, who gets a job in the US and finds himself in a strange situation. But the film is pretentious in its narrative style, lacking both coherence and clarity.
A thriller does warrant an amount of intrigue and suspense. But when these elements are overdone, the audience is left bewildered and confused for the most part. The early scenes set in Chennai begin on a smooth note. Shiva is in love with Meera and wants to marry her before he leaves for the US on his new job. But her father sets a condition — that he would give consent for the marriage if Shiva proves his steadfastness in love by not communicating with her for a year. The story shifts to the US a year later, where Shiva seems a changed man, having a hot affair with his sensual colleague Maya. So far, it’s a credible narrative. It’s what follows that lacks clarity.
Shiva takes a potion from a tribal chief and hallucinations dog him. Is it his delusion or reality that Meera is with him in the US and that he is married to her? Why is Maya suddenly rejecting his sexual advances? Caught in a mental trauma, Shiva tries to make sense of it all. It gets more confusing and complicated as the narration progresses. The screenplay seems to have been written in bits and pieces, arbitrarily arranged.
There are too many flashcuts and explanations, the tacky lines not making it any better. And the final explanation to the whole fiasco that has gone by, doesn’t convince at all. If the actors seem a bewildered lot, one can't blame them.
Ganesh Venkatram gets to play the protagonist here. The actor puts in a good effort, but in the closing scenes he slips into dramatics, doing a Sethu.
Natty's debut was a promising effort, and has misled one in thinking his second venture would be more polished and interesting!