Poda Podi

My review: Poda Podi

"Poda podi " is a romantic-comedy written and directed by debutant Vignesh Shivan starring Silambarsan aka STR and Varu Sarathkumar in the lead. Movie starts of very tentatively with draggy screenplay and amateurish direction. First half an hour is almost like watching an amateur drama. But thankfully the movie picks up from there and gets better and better, the emotional roller-coaster culminating with an end that would bring smile in the face of the viewers.

Good aspect of this movie is that Vignesh has refrained himself from taking sides between the archaic and chauvinistic hero and achievement oriented and practical heroine. Thankfully the sermonizing about the virtues of Tamil culture and how Tamil girl is expected to lead her life is cut short and we get to hear both the sides of the story.

Dialogues are from the casual  lingo that youth currently use. Vignesh can be excused for few of the misogynistic preachy dialogues because the hero gets it back from the heroine whenever it warrants.

STR  is self-conscious in the first half trying hard to come up with a restrained act. In the second half he is very good. Be it jealousy, anger, love, fatherly affection, angst, or pathos he comes up trumps. Especially his outburst in front of his wife's house is one of the best scene by him in his career. Varu is excellent. She is more casual in her portrayal and she does a very good job in the emotional scenes too. Her voice is added advantage to her role for it brings in novelty factor. It is heartening to see both the lead pair doing so well in dance after a very long time (May be after Vijay-Simran pair). It is a treat to see them dance in the "I am kuthu dancer" song with both outperforming one another. Varu is a good addition to Tamil Cinema which is scarcely populated with Tamil actresses.

Shobana is wasted in a half-backed role while Ganesh is strictly okay.

Dharan's songs are already rocking the charts. "Hare rama" and "Poda podi" are awesome melodious numbers. "I am a kuthu dancer " and "Love panlama venama" are foot-tapping spiced up with good moves.
However his background score is pretty average.

Duncan Telford is the cinematographer & technically the movie is sound.

Vignesh Shivan seem to be a quick learner. His grasp over the medium improves as the movie progresses which is evident on screen. At many places one can get a feeling that happenings are superficial but may be the director might have felt it right that way.

On the whole, if one can excuse the initial amateurishness, "Poda podi" is a neat rom-com that might satisfy the youthful crowd.

Bottomline: STR's worthy follow-up to VTV.

3/5