Padavettu

This was a good political movie. The movie effectively tries to show how politicians interfere in our life if we don't intrrfere in politics. The technical department does a amazing job. The set design done in this movie is marvelous. The place they show as nivin paulys house, goes through a lot of changes in this movie. The major conflicts starts and ends in nivin paulys house. The way they show the changes of the house was so good and convincing. So a huge shoutout to all thoes who did the set design. The cinematography is superb. The landscapes, the crowd all was nicely shot. The geography itself becomes a very important character. Nivin pauly, shammi thilagan, remya suresh all give a nice performance. As a debut director, judging from this movie, I have a lot of hope in liju krishna. I am really looking forward to his next project.

The issue with the movie is some parts of it's writing. Especially the second half, the movie takes a lot of time to establish nivin paulys characters arc and that felt a lot distracting from the main plot and both the plots don't feel blended organically. I feel it would have been nice if they would have explored more on how the political parties take advantage on poor farmers and exploit the nature. That would have made the climax much more satisfactory. They take their time with the setup. Could have reduced that. Aditi balan was so underused, feels bad to see such talented actress barely doing anything.

Padavettu depicts the essence of Indian politics through the struggles of a rural village and a protagonist who rises up to the occasion after living the longest time in his own failures. The film brilliantly draws out the characters, their existence in the land and the different sides of politics very clearly.

All the characters are very flawed in their own ways which are also very realistic and relatable. I've seen other films that have shown similar character arcs like that of Nivin in this film. But what made this really different is that there were many moments in this film where in another film it would be a point where he starts doing something different. But here, his fears and doubts are given so much focus all the while he arrogantly walks away from everything he should be facing. It felt so real and raw that he took this much time to do something and even when he does something it doesn't change everything immediately. The time taken for the transition made it feel very real.

Talking about the politics of the film, on one side there are genuine politicians who are still in the trappings of being a politician with decades of political culture that still drags down their ideologies. They do the work in the way they know and are comfortable with. Which is not really that great for the common people at first glance. On the other side, there are those who see this as the opportunity to rise up and take the power using the power they have with money, ultimately aiming to make even more money. These businessmen may not only use sweet words and investments into the people like the movie says loud but also uses various methods to create a divide between the people to their own benefit.

It's also worth noting that this film also uses the myths of the land like Theyyam at times and even wild boars like the recent Kannada film Kantara even though this doesn't really have any mystical element in this and uses them as metaphors that are motivating.

The plot is not really anything new to Malayalam cinema. But the way the different aspects are explored in the movie makes it one of the best attempts to use this plot. But the biggest positive of the movie being the exploration of those aspects ends up as the negative too in a way. When the movie ends and says to be continued, it really feels like half a movie that ended at a great interval punch. There are a lot of characters that are only explored enough as in the first half of a movie and need more exploration. The politics, as strong as the movie depicted it, could only be completed with the rest of the story. With the not-so-great box office collection and other issues in the background of the film, that doesn't look too hopeful.

The story was not bad but the screenplay dragged each scene with unnecessary shots that it became impossible to even pretend to like the film... Too much slowmo in the last fight, in fact the whole fight was in slow-motion. Story writing style was pretty old where things were being explained on atom level, c'mon, we are living in net age. People understand things faster than the speed of light.

However I liked the casting. Shine could've been used better or a bit more of his involvement would have been great.

Overall an average flick... People who watch movies based on the lead actor in the film would like it a lot 'cause Nivin has done a great job.

The movie discusses a relevant topic of the current society in a very pleasant manner. The movie was a great experience with its storyline, screenplay, cast and best performance of the actors. The movie speaks about the illegal activities that some political parties do to get power and influence within the general public. Thanks to the direction, the movie had a very pleasant first half and the transformed second half where the main idea of the movie is conveyed to the viewers. The cinematography was also awesome and the movie was able to build the imaginary village in the minds of the views. Overall quality of the movie was great.

I haven't liked Nivin's film since 2017, and there were films that makes one feel like he has forgotten acting. However, this film is different, it is much fair. From the nature of the story and scenes, I believe the actor just had to act, cause everything else went like a clockwork along with it. Supporting actors were also good. His mother's sister and the old guys (I wish someone would add their names too) were really good. I wish Shammi's character was a bit more menacing, then the drama might have been a bit more fatty. Also, thanks for not making the film super political and for not signalling any parties messages, thanks for using plot devices solely for storytelling. Thanks for telling the messages of grit through the person rather than using a political party. A much appreciative work and wouldn't have hurt if more elements of grit from the protagonist and personal viciousness from villains were added. I didn't know that LK was one of those who abused people for personal fun. I know a lot who does, and a lot of them who keeps Vaashi films explanation of laws related to abuse close to their heart, and have formed it as the legitimate basis for abusing more people.