After acting in a couple of films like Kungumapoovum Konjum Puraavum and Goripalayam, Ramakrishnan steps into direction with Pongadi Neengalum Unga Kadhalum. A former directorial assistant to K Balachander and Cheran, Ramakrishnan, apart from scripting and playing the lead, also sings here. The film centres around a petty thief who gets caught in an unsavoury situation, and tries to extricate himself.
A meandering screenplay, jumpy narration and some confused, convoluted messages take the film far from entertaining.
The screenplay travels on two different tracks. On one is the gangrape and death of a senior cop’s daughter and her nude photos circulated on the net. On the other track is the antics of a couple of petty thieves — Sago and his buddy (Ramakrishnan and Senrayan). Sago’s ladylove Divya (Athmeeya) appears suddenly in his life and relentlessly woos him. Sago is crude and unkempt with street lingo and uncouth manners. Ramakrishnan goes overboard to make sure that his Sago is as irritating and offensive as possible.
He does bounce back in the closing moments when he takes on his tormentors. One doesn’t have to waste much time pondering why a wealthy, fairly pretty Divya would fall for a street scum.
Divya’s vindictive expressions, coupled with the ominous background score, alerts the audience of a hidden agenda. Faring better than Athmeeya is debutant Karunya, who appears as her sensible pragmatic friend. There are a couple of insipid twists and turns and a futile attempt to link the different stories into a coherent whole. There are many loose ends and situations that lack conviction. The cop (Jayaprakash) talks about his daughter being raped by her boyfriend and the friends she trusted. One would have thought it was easy to identify the culprits. However, there seems to be no investigation on that front. But consistent and watchable is Jayaprakash, who brings a semblance of sobriety to his role. Senrayan peps up the narration whenever he gets the space. The whole scenario of the search for the rapists and the attempt on a cover-up lacks conviction. There is a lot of generalisation, moralising and preaching. While the characters on one hand constantly heap abuse on the fairer sex and treat them with disdain, occasionally a character gives a long speech on how women should be cherished and treasured — a balancing act that misfires.
Too many issues are cramped in like cyber crime, misuse of cellphones and Facebook friendships. Wrongly placed songs slacken an already going-downhill screenplay. With most of the men in the film a bad lot and the women mostly the victims, the title seems a misnomer.