Satham Podadhey - Movie Review

Satham Podadhey by director Vasanth...

On one side Tamil Cinema continues to follow established trends like Rowdy themes and Mother/Sister sentiments, while on the other side there are daring new themes and styles of film making being explored.

The arrival of the younger crop of directors like Gowtham Menon and Selvaraghavan has been instrumental in bringing fresher styles of film making to the industry.
Vasanth, an established director of more than a decade, with a number of hits to his credit, explores the suspense genrein his latest offering. It's not entirely new to him, after his successful 'Aasai' (1995) raised the bar for such films.After 13 years he comes out with a similar offering that talks volumes about the advances made in Visual Presentation andediting techniques during these years.
Whether or not this film becomes a trendsetter remains to be seen, but it is clear that the suspense genre can attract a lot of curiosity among people and lead to better openings in the metros!

The film starts of well enough to sustain its hype of being a horror/suspense thriller...
Rathnavel (Shiva of 'Chennai 28' fame!), a chronic alchoholic who has given up the habit through the aid of the AA (Alchoholics Anonymous) group program marries Padma Priya. Problems surface when she discoversthat he is infertile. When we learn that Rathnavel's condition is due to his chronic drinking problem and thatknew of this before his marriage, we, the audience, gear up to face a psychopath character who's all out to create problems out of his own insecurity! Revealing more of the story line would be criminal injustice to the movie, which already suffersfrom predictablity problems down the line.

The director manages to give the film an eerie look through camera angles, editing techniques and music effects. The acting is first rate, with Padma Priya taking top honors.
Prithiviraj does his normal self in this movie. Hangover from his 'Mozhi' characterization is evident and he should watch out in the future to avoid being stereotyped to such roles. Shiva is convincing as the mentally affected guy. His characterization as the 'neither the bad guy nor the good guy', is a difficult thing to enact consistently!

The movie manages to grab your attention until the plot becomes clear, which is till midway in the first half.At that point, if there's anything that mars the movie's chances, it's the predicability that sets into the plot. The scenes involving Prithviraj courting Padma Priya create a 'Mozhi' ambience and serve for pleasant viewing, but they become quite a stretch as it starts digressing from the main plot.

Thankfully, Vasanth realizes this and tries hard in the second half to avoid the movie from becoming a cliche of sorts and succeeds to an extent as the second half sets in and more so towards the climax.

The Sound-Proofing of the room adds a novel element in narration but could have been used better to further the characterization of Rathnavel. This is one movie where a greater emotional depth could have created a better impact.
The lack of depth and real mystery creates a shallow feeling at the end.

The assortment of item numbers thrown into the plot with thin plot connections serve to mar the suspense effect that the viewer is eagerly awaiting. The songs are ordinary at best and at least a couple of them should be shortened or cut in the second half. First of all, a thriller movie should ideally have minimal songs that move the narration ahead. And Prithiviraj has an introductory song in this one! A definite speed breaker!

In many respects, the movie suffers from the Deja Vu effect of Vasanth's movie 'Aasai' that came out 11 years ago. However, if you were to look to Vasanth the director 11 years ago in his movie 'Aasai' and today, you'd appreciatehis involvement in experimenting with modern techniques in film making for best effect. Like the jump cuts in editing, the fine cinematography, the non-linear narration at times, the title rolls interspersed with scenes for a suspense effect, etc.

All said, the movie definitely is worth a one time watch! Better so at the theater!
2.5 stars! ==> Watchable, not a waste of money. You'll get to timepass and not feel too affected or elated by the movie.