PaVa

There are instances in the movie PaVa (Pappanekurichum Varkkiyekkurichum) where the writer has teased the greedy attitude of religions in a humorous way. The only thing I probably enjoyed in this movie was that. With actors struggling to play the characters with conviction, and content failing to have a clear vision on what exactly to convey, PaVa has moments which will make you laugh, but unfortunately they are way too sporadic.

The movie is basically set in the backdrop of old age and tries to have a quirky look at the typically dark and melodramatic phase of life. Pappan and Varkey are two close friends in their 80’s. Varkey dies in an unfortunate accident and that leaves our second protagonist Pappan in a tough spot where he feels a certain kind of loneliness. The movie PaVa focuses on the decisions taken by Pappan after the demise of Varkey and the reactions of society, religion and family members towards those decisions.

You can definitely sense the director’s effort to make it a quirky and a bit spoofy movie. The problem is fundamentally with the writing and thus causing serious performance issues. These days we are seeing movies with realism in treatment having an attraction. When you see characters in PaVa speaking the sort of written dialogues with all the dramatic pauses and expressions’ reminding you of the school days plays, it automatically pulls the movie backwards. Adding to its disappointment is the plot that is sort of stuck in an uninteresting zone. Even though there are those scenes in the movie which takes a hilarious dig at the money driven religious system, it sort of stands out from the movie. And all those imagination sequences and quarrels sound too chaotic.

Anoop Menon wasn’t at all good with his performance. The voice modulation sounded terrible and the body language also wasn’t that convincing. When compared to Mr. Menon, Murali Gopi did a better job. But he too had portions where the actor in him overacted. Indrans did his role neatly. P Balachandran was fine. Renji Panicker was a bit too eccentric. The other members in the elaborate cast were okay. In a recent interview, actress Ranjini sort of presented her character in PaVa as a very important one. But to be honest, there is no importance to her character and the way she performed the role was heavily disappointing.

Sooraj Tom’s making style has this outdated feel. The kind of theatricality that was there in the writing wasn’t minimized in the making and that adds amateurishness to the story. I couldn’t really find an answer to the question of what exactly is this movie about. Old age, religions, family equations etc. gets mentioned in the screenplay but still the plot looks very weak. The mix of fantasy and sarcasm didn’t really work for me. Cinematography was fine. Makeup was an integral part and Renjith Ambadi has done a nice job. The edits were bumpy. Background scores sounded disturbingly disjoint. The Podimeesha song was good, but the rest of the songs were just average.

So to sum it up, PaVa disappointed me because of its underwhelming treatment that has all the outdated mixtures. The brittleness of the plot and the drama makes PaVa a forgettable watch.

Rating : 2/5