8.5
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Cast: Satya, Rakul Preet Singh, Vignesh, Sanjay Krishna
Director: Vijay Adhiraj
Producer: Dr. Ramadass
Music: James Vasanthan
Cinematography: Lakshman
Story/Writer: Guhan Srinivasan
Release Date: Jan 14 2013
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Run Time: 150 minutes
Director: Vijay Adhiraj
Producer: Dr. Ramadass
Music: James Vasanthan
Cinematography: Lakshman
Story/Writer: Guhan Srinivasan
Release Date: Jan 14 2013
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Run Time: 150 minutes
Puthagam (2013)
User Score
3.9
(262 votes)
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TV personality Vijay Adhiraj marks his maiden direction into mainstream cinema with “Puthagam”. Incidentally Arya’s brother Sathya (looks like Arya’s photocopy) debuts in Kollywood with this movie and so does Director Santhanabharathy’s son Sanjay. Puthagam joins the race for Pongal box-office, although its promotion was average when compared with other movies. However the trailer of this film had rave reviews building up the expectation factor. Vijay ends his 14 year respite of this idea and has transformed it into a movie shot with new protagonists. Let’s take a brief look on what this movie is about:
Story:
The film begins with RJ Balaji’s chirpy happy go introduction of mainstream characters, Sathya, Sanjay, Vignesh and Rakul Preeti singh. After the usual blend of romance, slow comedy and sentiment, the first half is all about how the three of them struggle to make a living. Meanwhile there is a political turmoil elsewhere with the arrest of Party leader essayed by Suresh. Rakul plays the upbeat journalist who covers most of the happening news and also as Sathya’s lover. A fortune comes by to the vagabonds and rest of the plot is all about how and what happens to them with all the riches and turnover of events.
Post intermission there is little scope for Rakul as she does the disappearing act now and then. Jagapathi Babu’s character is of a venal macho along with his sidekick bombshell Rachna Murya. A whale of small time actors like Uma Padmanabhan, Thalaivasal Vijay, Santhana Bharathi, Fathima Babu and Mano Bala get comfy in their roles though they appear barely for a minute.
Puthagam (2013),
Sathya (Arya’s brother) makes a decent debut through this movie. He had to improve a little on his acting to become a Romantic Hero in Tamil Cinema. He had to speak with his brother Arya and learn how to give a mischievous & romantic smile.
Sanjay Barathi (Santhanabharathy’s son) makes a promising debut. He looks very confident in acting and no one will believe that this one is his debut movie. He definitely looks like a matured actor who had acted in more than 5 movies.
Rakul Preet Singh was Femina Miss India 2011. Her first tamil movie was “Thadaiyara Thakka”. But, her role was kept in dark for most of the scenes to keep the suspense around her character. She perfectly fits the role as Newsleader in this movie.
Jagapathy Babu who had received lots of Nandi Awards for Telugu Movies plays a crucial role in this movie after Madrasi and Thandavam. He had done his role to perfection.
Music by James Vasanthan was awesome. “Kangal Irandal” from Subramaniyapuram is one of the best melodies of Tamil Cinema. This will be his first urban – centric movie and the songs were very average. But, the background music and theme music were awesome.
Cinematography by Laxman was Excellent. Movie was shot with Sony F 65. Each and every frame looks very fresh and the picturization of the songs were too good.
Editing by Kevin was perfect. First half of the movie was dragging and he could have edited few more scenes. But, editing in the second half was perfect and that’s the reason for the excellent second half.
Director Vijay Adiraj makes the Brilliant debut and I am quite sure that he will be one of the leading directors in our tamil cinema in future. He had compromised in the first half to give opportunity to all the actors in the movie and that’s the reason, it looks dragging. Scenes in the first 30 minutes were not too good and he had given more importance to voiceover by RJ Balaji which may work for few audiences and may not for the rest. Second Half of the movie is completely different from the first half and you may not believe that it is directed by the same person who did the first half. Screenplay was awesome in the second half, songs were placed at the correct locations, and dialogues were good except few punch dialogues spoken by Jagapath Babu.
Technically ‘Puthagam’ doesn’t look very strong; it is certainly not a poor one either. Cinematographer Laxman Kumar has done a good job while James Vasanthan has delivered a brilliant background score which adds the necessary spice whenever it is needed.
Though the director has come up with an unique storyline, ‘Puthagam’ fails to be an exciting page-turner with his poor screenplay. Though the running time isn’t too long, the film seems like a ‘Daily Soap’ (which the director was earlier part of). The dialogues could have been a bit more crisper. Had the director taken care of the cliché drama and sentiments, ’Puthagam’ could have been an ‘edge of the seat’ thriller. Instead, it turns out to be an usual drama with a pinch of romance to it.
Sathya, Sanjay Bharathi, Rakul Preet Singh and Vignesh have delivered a sensible performance on-screen. Kudos to the director for his brilliant casting.
The movie as a whole is a thriller and Vijay’s innovative tryst with it takes a rough jolt at many places. Sathya looks well built for a hero, but he needs to do a lot of homework when he emotes especially the close ups. Sanjay and Vignesh try their comedy at parts and somewhat helps at times. Rakul as a journalist is fresh and charming to watch unlike the part in her previous movie where she was seen most of the time in dark. Her lip synch is such a treat to watch and the director deserves a pat for working on a non tamilian actor’s jargon. Her acting is as good as her looks and is sure to stay in Tamil Cinema.
The screenplay is a big let-down with an arguable length which just restrains the flow of the movie. One moment the scene gets racy and the next moment it’s all sentimental and then again the director turns to romance, just not matching the right situation. The makeup is drastic and very evident, in certain scenes where Suresh’s close-up is depicted it can easily give away how poor the patch up is. James’s background score is harmonious at appropriate junctures, however the music is average. Jagapathi’s recurring Punch dialogues irritates after a while and makes us wonder why this Kolaveri? A big solace in this drama is cinematography by Laxman, he enthrals us with apt camera work in both lighter and darker shades of the movie.
Technically Puthagam looks good, credit to the cinematographer Laxman Kumar who has managed to show the colorful side of the fun loving youngsters and the more darker and sinister side of the scheming villains. James Vasanthan delivers some foot-tapping tunes that have been shot in picturesque locations abroad, and his able background score adds necessary drama for the important scenes.
Where Puthagam fails to be an exciting page-turner is in its distracted screenplay. Clocking at nearly 150 minutes, Puthagam contains several episodes that hamper the intensity and flow of the original plot, which is revealed only minutes before the interval. Knocking off the old-fashioned bromance and its related links could have made Puthagam racier. Another area where the film falls short of grabbing your attention is in its lengthy dialogue sequences which ideally could have been crisper. One feels that the director could have employed other means of narrative techniques to break the monotony of conversations.
Even though Vijay Adhiraj’s intentions were to serve up an interesting thriller for all kinds of audience, the result of what might have been an edge of the seat thriller turns into a long drama filled with the usual sentiments played by usual characters.