Parandhu Po (IFFR World premiere) - Review
The movie was introduced as “A middle class melody” by the team before the premiere. And it was true to an extent. The movie had a lot of songs, as Director Ram used a “modern villu paattu” style narration with songs bring used to narrate/explain the scene. It was a fresh attempt. But unfortunately the songs were neither memorable nor catchy, with maybe a couple of notable songs. Saving grace was the BGM by U1.
DOP was the MVP in this movie. As this is a road movie, cinematography played a critical role with each and every frame looking like a painting.
Editing was not that great. Every single scene felt like it was 30 seconds - a minute longer than it needed to be. I don't know if they purposefully did it for the festival cut, but you could feel the runtime, even though the movie was less than 2hr 30 minutes.
Coming to performances, Shiva gave a fine performance. But his best is still the TP series (and I'm not saying this ironically). Grace Antony brilliantly portrayed her character as Shiva's wife, being subtle in the first half and becoming more expressive as the movie progresses. The little boy, who's character the story revolves around, has done a decent job. He did what was asked of him.
But it was Ram, who's writing left a lot to be desired. He especially dropped the ball writing the boy's character. In the second half of the movie, there was a complete disconnect with the boy's character, and one finds it hard to root for him. Luckily there was humor throughout the movie and Shiva carried his character well, which was the saving grace. If not for AUSS, I believe this would have been a difficult watch.
Since I went to the movie blind without even watching a trailer, my expectations weren't set right. I was hoping for a Peranbu type movie, whereas Parandhu Po was a completely different attempt by Director Ram.
Overall, this was a fresh attempt by Ram but with his usual politics. As this is a straight to OTT, you can give this a try. A harmless one time watch.
The movie was introduced as “A middle class melody” by the team before the premiere. And it was true to an extent. The movie had a lot of songs, as Director Ram used a “modern villu paattu” style narration with songs bring used to narrate/explain the scene. It was a fresh attempt. But unfortunately the songs were neither memorable nor catchy, with maybe a couple of notable songs. Saving grace was the BGM by U1.
DOP was the MVP in this movie. As this is a road movie, cinematography played a critical role with each and every frame looking like a painting.
Editing was not that great. Every single scene felt like it was 30 seconds - a minute longer than it needed to be. I don't know if they purposefully did it for the festival cut, but you could feel the runtime, even though the movie was less than 2hr 30 minutes.
Coming to performances, Shiva gave a fine performance. But his best is still the TP series (and I'm not saying this ironically). Grace Antony brilliantly portrayed her character as Shiva's wife, being subtle in the first half and becoming more expressive as the movie progresses. The little boy, who's character the story revolves around, has done a decent job. He did what was asked of him.
But it was Ram, who's writing left a lot to be desired. He especially dropped the ball writing the boy's character. In the second half of the movie, there was a complete disconnect with the boy's character, and one finds it hard to root for him. Luckily there was humor throughout the movie and Shiva carried his character well, which was the saving grace. If not for AUSS, I believe this would have been a difficult watch.
Since I went to the movie blind without even watching a trailer, my expectations weren't set right. I was hoping for a Peranbu type movie, whereas Parandhu Po was a completely different attempt by Director Ram.
Overall, this was a fresh attempt by Ram but with his usual politics. As this is a straight to OTT, you can give this a try. A harmless one time watch.