Pichaikkaran Tamil Movie
Pichaikkaran is a watchable commercial film that boasts of a heady mix of old-fashioned mother-son sentiment, not-so-cliched romance, and tolerable action. Vijay Antony, who has had a bevy of successful projects of late, has come up with another box-office winning masala film in Pichaikkaran, which will surely cater to the masses, especially the women crowd courtesy director Sasi's perfect presentation of mother-son sentiment that easily strikes a chord with the audiences.
The film has a handful of heart-tugging moments that are superbly elevated by Sasi's sympathetic one-liners, which sometimes come across as meaningful punch-lines that you will often see Rajinikanth mouth in his movies.
Arul (Vijay Antony) is a wealthy businessman who struggles to keep his ailing mother alive. When the doctors wash their hands off, Arul believes the words of a spiritual guru who asks him to relinquish all his wealth and lead a no-frills-attached life as a beggar for the next 48 days without revealing his real identity to anyone to get his mother back. Despite the silliest possible set-up Sasi demonstrates us as the central reason for Arul turning into a beggar, he has scored heavily on the sentiments part with his genuine portrayal of emotions.
Sasi captures the wretched lives of beggars in a heart-breaking fashion and his lines voice for the disadvantaged people in the society. And the general movie-watching audience loves it. Sasi carefully generates the tension among viewers with this 'system vs. marginalized people' theory and we all give in to the organic flow of events that unwind on screen.
Even the romance angle, which is occasionally melodramatic, between Satna Titus (the new find from the land of Kerala) and Vijay Antony, is handled with care. Though the track between the leads is not great, it is not boringly stereotyped at least.
It is the mundane writing for various supporting characters that don't stick well with the proceedings. Had Sasi offered more muscle for the ensemble cast, Pichaikkaran would have been an even better film with a fulfilling third-act.
Sasi shines in his touching depiction of the rich-poor divide and the massive difference in social strata that we often ignore in our busy lives. The film has a nice message but it is not thrust on your face. It is conveyed subtly and makes us feel angry about it. That's a very rare feeling a Tamil film manages to evoke.
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