Satham Podathey- Movie review

Satham Podathey- Pealing silence!

This time Vasanth brings to screenlight a decent family diamond which thrills the looking eyes. To an extent this movie appears to be a sequel to his earlier blockbuster Aasai, where Prithviraj replaces Ajith. This movie could be classified among the Tamil movies like Vaali, Aval Varuvala and the age old super hit Moondru mudichu.Though the story is claimed to be inspired from a true incident we could smell the aroma of a few Hollywood movies like Hostel,Cube Zero and Rest Stop.Irrespective of the matter that this movie has a good amount of critical mass to blast out a gory bomb,Vasanth has presented us a pleasant thriller as per his name. So a dozen of cheers to SM Vasanth. If he had rolled the screenplay a bit faster, evidently this movie would have set the cash registers ringing at the box office.Hats off to Mithra films.

The plot resembles the structure of a prism since its woven around three main characters where we could see the ins and outs of the three, three dimensionally. The story flags off with the marriage of Banumathi{Padmapriya} and Rathinavel{Nithin Sathya} where the former enters the matrimonial orchard with a load of motherly dreams. Very soon she realises that his husband is incapable of impregnating her womb with a child.Though her parents and her brother{Ragav} insist her to go ahead with a divorce case,she withers off their ideas by stating that  she still loves her life partner since he is an open book. A couple of scenes later the couple adopt a child from an orphanage. From this point onwards the real skin of Rathinavel starts getting exposed. Due to his extreme possessiveness,Rathinavelu forces Banu to send the child back,which he dictates by role-playing an one-act drama. After this Rathinavelu doubts his wife and beats her black blue and torments her when she takes up a teaching job. Meanwhile Banu gets to know{ironically the audience know this much before!}through a Father{Nasser} that her husband had lost his manliness to produce a child due to his obsessive addiction to alcohol and presently he is a member of an Alcoholic addicts rehabilitation group. So the heifer is exposed as an Hyena. Now Padmapriya goes ahead with the divorce and jumps off that deadly matrimonial RV. But Rathinavel splits their parting scene with a word of vengeance.Although introduced previously with a “childish” song and peppy comicals Ravichandran{Prithviraj} comes to limelight as Banu’s brother’s colleague in a software firm,who,with a logical service mind accepts to woo and marry Banu.And he marries Banu after the usual Tamil cinematic unconventional wooing. Things start to shake when R1 meets R2. Rathinavel decides to ruin the happy life of his ex-wife and Ravichandran when Ravi gets posted tempororily in Kerala. As a first and vital part of his “go-damned” operation Rathinavel kidnaps and locks Banu in his house at Edapalli,Kerala and makes a setup which makes Banu’s family to proceed with her funeral thinking she had blown the light. Did Prithviraj resurrect Banu?Will Rathinavel get convicted? Will Banu become a mother which is the dream of her life? To know the answers watch “Satham Podathey” without making ado.

Among the characters Nithin Sathya rocks and rolls. As a contrast to the cliched Tamil cinema antagonists, who appear to be in a seperate grotesque world unknown to others, Nithin Sathya’s character hails from real human species,explaining every action and intention makes a good show and a part of his credit goes to Vasanth for choosing the right person for the right character.Following the villain,Padmapriya,the female lead and the protagonist makes a brilliant show. She creates empathy when longing for a child, creates sympathy when tortured by her husband and makes a strong impression in our heart when she suffers in the sound-proof room.So the character Banu will be accepted and appreciated by the women as well as men. An element of feminism could be found in this movie if we clinically dissect it further. Prithviraj comes and sniffs as usual as a merry-go-round man. Apart from the chief characters Ragav who plays the brother of Padmapriya, shines well as a software proffesional with a pen drive hung around his neck. Nasser, Suhasini and Premji play guests in the movie.

Vasanth’s expertise in making good films become apparent in many parts of the movie. The camera starts slowly swinging when Nithin Sathya lies onscreen, which is fresh and fantastic like a cup of tea straight from an estate.The way in which the movie kicks off and folds on brings a great applause to Vasanth.The visualisation of the songs are good enough to produce a mesmerizing effect. Especially the “Azhagu Kutty Chellam” and “Indha Kadhal” songs were well shot in perfect locations. On the other hand “Krishna Krishna” and “Entha kuthirayil” songs were picturised in a English pop style, which produce the same effect as the story. {Good to see a movie without crazy duets}

The problem with the story line is that it gives a feeling of watching a 5 day cricket match.{Slow but sensational} Would have been much better if Vasanth has speeded the screenplay which lumbers a bit. Also in the first half,the scenes involving Prithviraj are nice but a tard away from the story,like a subplot.The editor had done a goo job with the continuity of the scenes. In Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music Krishna Krishna,Azhagu kutty and Pesukiren scores well.Any how it is always good to see a soft and appealing movie in the twenty twenty season. So Satham Podathey says“Beware of Jealousy, a wine eyed monster”

-Spontic

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