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Friday, March 16, 2007

Patchaikili Muthucharam (2007) - Tamil Movie Review

Ranking: 3.5/5

Cast: Sharath Kumar, Jo, Andrea, Milind Soman
Director: Gautham Menon
Music: Harris Jeyaraj


I have to congratulate Gautham Menon on a job well done with a tight script and a brilliant screenplay. The music by Harris somehow did not feel fresh and had glimpses of his previous hits. Although the re-recording for the movie was pretty impressive. The casting in the movie also has to be appreciated because each of the character played their role beautifully.

Venkat (Sarath), a medical representative is a happily married person with a son. His wife Kalyani (Andrea) is very loving and both of them along with their son have a perfect life. That is, until their son falls sick and things between the husband and wife cool down a bit. Kalyani begins to spend more time with their son and starts to ignore her husband involuntarily. Venkat feeling a bit lonely and neglected walks in and out of his monotonous life without complaining much. He tries to understand his wife's feelings.

One morning while riding the train to work, Venkat notices Priya (Jo) and spends a few extra seconds admiring her. The following day again he happens to stand next to her. And Priya opens up the conversation with Venkat. Both married with kids, they feel they have a lot of common things between them and start a friendship together. At first it is platonic and they meet only in the train but slowly they start meeting at restaurants and coffee shops.

Priya begins to get a little physically close to Venkat and she suggests that they both spend a day together watching movies or something alone. Venkat agrees and they take a taxi and drive to MayaJal on East Coast Road. But at the last minute Priya changes her mind and directs the taxi driver to go to a resort along the same road. The couple book a room and move in...

A knock on the door which prompts Venkat to open only to find himself facing a goon with a gun who is beating Venkat to pulp. He robs the couple and also ties Venkat up before raping Priya. Venkat is grief stricken and they both part ways.

The goon who calls himself Lawrence (Milind) starts calling Venkat and Priya to harass them for money. Venkat takes the full financial responsibility and starts paying off the money that him and Kalyani have been saving for their sons health until he runs dry. With no other choice left Venkat confesses to Kalyani.

What happens next will be a wonderful twist in the story. I will not make this a spoiler review and hence I am going to stop here with the story. Sarath Kumar is brilliant as Venkat and so is Jo as Priya. Wonder why Milind is doing Tamil movies but he is surprisingly not bad either. Andrea, the new girl, is also awesome. She has good presence and her portrayal of Kalyani is wonderful. It is a movie worth watching even with family. There are no awkward scenes.

5 comments:

Kasi Alagappan said...

Oh Good job done. Back to reading your blog after a big gap. Had a quick reading of the ones I left after your Veyil post. I did see Pachai Kili.. It was okay, but I felt it didnt have the menon's finesse (w.r.to his earlier movies)

Ramu's Corner said...

Now a days I started watching the movies after reading ur reviews & ratings.. U do have a common mind set which most of the ppl have.. Get it going.. expecting reviews for hollywood movies too, if ur interested!

RajivSrinivasan said...

Gautham is turning out to be a manirathnam in making. I saw this movie and was treally impressed the way he had made this movie. A differnt kind of movie which is normally resented by conservative tamil viewers who are not used to seeing their larger than life heroes portray such a role. Gautham with is splendid script play has not only given a new dimension to tamil movies but also has educed the best out of Sharath kumar which was missing all these days.This is a must watch

Anu Russell said...

Thanks Kasi for coming back WB.

Ramu, thanks for your comments and thanks for visiting.

Rajiv, I agree with everything u have said but I dont want to compare Gautham to Mani. I used to like Mani before when he made simple movies...now the larger than life director image he has gotten himself needs to be shed before I can appreciate his movies again.

Gautham still hasnt gone up there...up there is a very destructive place. It can really change the way ppl think...

Nandakumar said...

did u know PKMC was a straight lift from the jennifer aniston movie - 'derailed'. and i wonder y gautham had to resort to a filmy ending after he had made the entire movie as realistic as possible.