Pichaikkaran

The variety the theme offers is perhaps the only and major plus point of the latest Vijay Antony Starrer Pichaikkaran directed by Sasi. Soaked in all the typical flavours like mass masala action, preachy melodrama, superstitious beliefs and cheesy romance, Pichaikaran has certain uniqueness here and there which keeps you engaged.

Arul has completed MBA and his mother is the owner of a huge spinning mill industry. Arul has arrived after studies to take charge of this business endeavor. But an unfortunate incident causes a serious damage in the sweet family life and the search for a solution ends up in a scenario where Arul will have to live the life of a beggar for a certain period of time without using any of the money and name he currently has. How he manages to do that and what all obstructions came in the way is what the movie talking about.

At the beginning, the lack of conviction in making reminded me of the Malayalam movie Paisa Paisa. Because the director wasn’t giving flawless experience to the viewers with the way he presents the millionaire as a Pichaikkaran. With well trimmed beard and occasionally fair face, Vijay Antony doesn’t really fit in to the description of a beggar. The romance and social preaching heroism looks not so appealing. In the mean time there is this clever humour track along with certain satirical aspect that sort of entertains the masses convincingly. The plot isn’t lengthened unnecessarily, but the subplots needed more of a novelty.

Vijay Antony doesn’t qualify as a terrific actor as he is very much restricted in terms of range of expressions. The guy also lacks that grace to be a massy hero. The heroine Satna Titus looks pretty and got heavy support from Raveena Ravi. The actors who performed as the fellow beggars were good.

As a director, Sasi treats the movie in a very typical way. There isn’t any speciality in the treatment to make us excited about the impressive premise. The lack of clarity in minute detailing is quite clear. The story of the movie has an interesting backdrop and impressive conflicts. The failure was actually in the screenplay section that couldn’t do much justice in building the story with unique sub plots. The music and cinematography were okay. The edits were poor. BGM’s reminded me of Vijay Antony’s past works as a music director.

To sum it up, I would say the film has many flaws and still something catchy is there in the movie which sort of makes it a passable entertainer. The final word would be that it is a watchable average movie.