Pattalam

Years before itself, tamil cine field has started experimenting on different subjects. The success of films like ‘Paruthiveeran’, Subramanyapuram’ etc repeated in our state also. Now the new film ‘Pattalam’, produced by director Lingusamy under the banner Thirupathi Brothers and directed by Rohan Krishna (once assistant to Priyadrashan), has got majority new young faces. Nadhiamoythu, who has got a great come back through the film ‘M Kumaran s/o Mahalaxmi’, has done a main character here along with the youths.

The main characters are handled by eight plus two students who belong to the same class in an English medium school. They are part of the different gangs. Four of them belongs a group and the rest half are their rivals. The heroine also studies in the same class. The lady head of the institution (Nadhiya) is an inspiring factor for the students; she is also working as the doctor in a mental hospital. The two groups fight each other even for silly things. In the end, when the dignity of the college is questioned in the public, they got united. In the middle one among the group loves the heroine. When she gets closer to another guy in the group, her lover misunderstood her and he decides to take revenge on his friend for the girl. The after effect of such a situation is the climax of ‘Pattalam’.

The story line may not be new; since we have seen the stern presentation of the school going students through films like ‘Desadanakkili Karayarilla’, ‘Daisy’ and ‘Notebook’. This film is no where near when compared with those. In the post interval session, when the rival gangs got united, the story ends there. Then the only possible thing there is to play with the romance, it has happened it has to be. At that point itself, by experience, I predicted the climax of the film. Anyway, it is good to see that many new faces got a chance to perform through such a film; some of them are very talented.

With such a subject, the team should have concentrated more on the screenplay side. Though there are comedy situations here and there, they are average only. Also there are not much serious situations in the story line. The main character done by Nadhiamoythu supports the boys in all their activities, but her character is not neatly defined. She doesn’t have complex scenes to perform. Malayalam young actor, Arun (‘Speed Track’, ‘Olymbian Anthony Adam’ fame) is the only experienced one in the whole group other than female lead. He has also got a solo romantic song to perform. He is not the worst, but his performance is not up to the mark when compared to the other young debutants.

Songs for Jassie Gift’s music is fast. Though we can’t recollect them, it goes with the situation. One or two of them should have been avoided. Sabesh-Murali had given a good background score. Camera by Krishnasamy is good. In whole, the story line of the film is typical only. The main thing is that, it is told simply, without much violence or boring.

This ‘Pattalam’ is an inexperienced young men’s army. No need to join these ordinary people at this point. We will wait and encourage them, until they prove their strength by winning a big battle.

Rating : 6 / 10