Padman Review

Padman is a movie inspired by the story of Arunachalam Muruganatham who invented a machine to create low cost sanitary pads. Helmed by R. Balki and starring Akshay Kumar in the lead, the movie tells the story of Arunachalam's journey from a village welder to an entrepreneur.

The movie has a good and entertaining first half and a more serious and better second half. The movie's narrative is fast and keeps you engaged as an audience. This is another one of those movies which are based on true events, but the names and events are changed to suit both the movie's scale and keeping in mind the all India audience. If we ignore the changes that have been made to make this movie, then it is a good movie to watch. The way the movie flows from one scene to the next without any hiccups make it an easy watch.

Akshay Kumar as the protagonist, Lakshmi has essayed the role with sincerity and looks the part every bit. Radhika Apte as Lakshmi's wife is very good in her role. Though she doesn't get a lot of screen time in second half of the movie, she has done the best out of the three lead actors as a village woman who doesn't believe in breaking age old traditions. Sonam Kapoor is refreahing in the movie but offers nothing new when compared to the other roles that she has done in past.

R.  Balki is a very talented director and we have seen him handle complex subjects with ease in movies like Cheeni Kum, Paa and Shamitabh. Compared to those movies Padman seems a comparatively easy movie to direct, though his handling of the subject of menstruatiom and sanitary pads should be commended. I am waiting with bated breath to see what is the next subject that he is going to handle. I am surely going to watch his next.

The movie's music is not great but merges well with the movie's mood. There's nothing great to talk about in the cinematogtaphy department but this was not a movie where the cinematographer's special skills were needed. So nothing to complain about here. However one needs special mention of the dialogues of the movie which are great but never go over the top. Akshay's monologue at the end of the movie in Linglish, as he called it , deserves special mention as it didn't have proper grammar but had a great impact.

Overall this is a movie that you can watch with your whole family without cringing inspite of the subject. So go and watch this gem from R. Balki.

Rating - 3.5 / 5