Pokkisham - Review

For the very first time, Cheran has presented a love story in the name of Pokkisham without any impressive footage! No doubt, technically Pokkisham is Cheran"s best film in his career, but all the efforts taken by him and his crew for this film are wasted. Poor screenplay, lots of lag in narration and particularly, the way Cheran delivers his feelings are completely out of touch.

The story starts with a flashback. Lanini's (Cheran) son Mahesh (Aryan Rajesh) discovers his father's old diaries and some letters and goes through them. Mahesh delves deep in to his father Lenin"s romantic love life and even switches off his mobile phone to avoid his sweet hearts continuous phone calls.

The flashback begins in August 1970, when Lenin, a good natured helpful guy and is interested in Tamil poetry and literature working as a marine engineer at Culcutta port, comes to the then Madras to look after his father (Vijayakumar), who has undergone a surgery at a hospital.

At the hospital, he meets Nadhira (Padmapriya), a Tamil literature graduate, who is looking after her ailing mother. Lenin helps Nadhira in the hospital in a very critical position. Soon the orthodox Muslim girl and the Hindu boy are attracted towards each other as they discuss poetry.

Love blossoms between the two, though they are separated by hundreds of miles with Lenin in Culcutta sending love letters to Nadhira, living in Nagore.

At a stage, Lenin's father knows this affair and approached Nadhira's father directly for the marriage of Lenin - Nadhira. Unexpectedly, Nadhira's father accepts the proposal but requests them to give more time to recover his business losses before the marriage. He also advises Lenin to control himself from frequently writing letters to Nadhira.

Lenin returns to Culcutta happily and controls himself as Nadhira's father requested. He sends letters to Nadhira once in a month. But he does not get response from Nadhira to any of his letters after a while. So Lenin immediately rushes to Nagore to know the real position. He comes to know about Nadhira's family shift to some undisclosed destination.

He searches Nadhira at his level best, but fails to find her anywhere on the earth. Finally, he enters in a wedlock with someone, but he continues his search for Nadhira till his last breath... After reading his late father"s romantic memories and pains, Mahesh takes up the task of tracking down Nadhira. His mission is to give the love letters written by his dad, which have not been posted!

Cheran is good as Lenin and brings out the pain and anxieties of the character he plays. But he overplays the role in many places that remember his earlier films. Padmapriya looks good in the initial scenes as Nadhira and brings out the feelings of the character she plays. But in the climax, her appearance as an old lady does not match and the make up looks like amateur.

Vijayakumar's characterization and performance is good and neat. Rajesh Yadhav's camera work and Vairabalan's art direction are the excellent features in the film. Sabesh Murali's tunes and back ground scores fail to impress the viewers.

Verdict - Good attempt, but not an impressive one!

Cast: Cheran, Padmapriya, Vijayakumar

Music: Sabesh Murali

Camera: Rajesh Yadhav

Art: Vairabalan

Direction: Cheran

Producer: Hithesh Jabak