Polladhavan - Movie review

Polladhavan–Commercial bikeboy!

Here comes another finished product from the Dhanush Masala industry directed by the debutant director Vetrimaaran who marches us through the story lane of a vibrant but violent lad. Inspite of the story being cliched, it manages to sustain the interest of the punters till the very end. Though the story provides no bandwidth for real performance Dhanush survives by skiing on his humor board. But even a fairy can’t float on a baroque balloon too long. So Dhanush should stand apart and step ahead of these kind of movies. 40% of the story line is nothing different from Dhanush’s previous projects such as Thiruda Thirudi, Thiruvilayadal aarambam and Devathaiyai kanden which is dictated by the same choice of actors such as Karunaas. But the ball gently crosses over all these boulders to reach the success boundary with the help of Quick screenplay and witty dialogues being hit by the master batsman Dhanush. With a limited number of ingredients Dhanush and Vetrimaran have made a perfect masala movie which is not overcooked.

The plot is concocted around an episode in the life of the youth Prabhu{Dhanush} who yearns even in dreams for a bike. But his family’s state of play baulks him from buying one for him. To his father’s{Murali} despair, Prabhu kills time with his friends{Dhanush,Santhanam and co}. And as usual he has his own love interest Hema{Dhivya} whom he courts for two years in vain. Like a shot, one ‘w’ine evening, Prabhu’s quarrell with his father intimidates the latter to give his son an amount of Rs 70000, which is spent by Prabhu for a brand new ‘Pulsar’. Prabhu’s family looks at him with apathy for his decision. But to their and our surprise Prabhu’s bike fixes his job as well as love. After this, Prabhu’s bike hikes up his life and makes luck his wife. Everything goes on well till Prabhu’s bike goes for a timeless trip with an unknown driver. This cuts Prabhu’s life and love wires and dashes him with a number of badmashes. But it takes time for Prabhu to realise that his journey to bring his bike home is not an easy task. kick starting his way to find his bike,Prabhu silences only after racing ahead of his opponents. Atlast Prabhu establishes that he is really a ‘Polladhavan’ for his enemies. But the plot is narrated in the first half by Prabhu and Ravi{Daniel Balaji} as well. But in the second half the story loses its narrative continuity. Director holds responsibility of this blunder and he is expected not to commit these errors in the future.

Dhanush has once again manifested that he is his Boss’s man. He tickles as a misguided boy, sprinkles sympathy as a tribulating lad and twinkles as an action man. The director shoots his medal of honor through his racy screenplay, realistic incidents and dialogue along with subtle humour. Kishore Kumar who plays the character ‘Selvam’ dons the role with his venomous eyes and slicy chennai slang. He carries the interest baton during the falling action of the movie. Daniel Balaji’s role appears to be a mirror image of his own ‘Amuthan’ character in Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu which is substantiated by the looted BGM from VV. Come rain or shine,Daniel Balaji continues to threaten, which is one of the biggest forties of this movie. Divya is in no way different from the trousseu except for a couple of dialogues and sexy song sequences. Karunaas and Santhanam didn’t fail to play comic crackers. On the whole, Dhanush and Vetrimaaran are the two wheels of this bike fuelled by action and comedy.

The rising action of the movie is slightly stirred by commercial elements while the falling action is spoiled by worn out action sequences. The heroine Divya fails to paint her character properly due to her lack of expressions. The technical aspects of this movie are above the mark. G.V.P‘s BGM rocks at certain places but at times we could find imitated tracks. The Engeyum song remix adds fuel to this bike, while other songs fail to do so. The song Minnalgal koothadum seems to be copied from the Akon number ‘Smack that’{Courtesy :Inspirations in Indian Film Songs website}. Apart from these GVP rides well.The last 20 minutes of the action sequence which goes between Daniel Balaji and Dhanush deserves enormous applause. So Polladhavan says “When you torment me, my eyes want to see you die and my heart thirsts for your blood!”

-Spontic