Paisa Paisa Review

Paisa Paisa, the debut movie from ad maker Prashanth Murali is a film that is an ode to friendship. It also discusses how an unexpected and immediate demand for a sum of just ten thousand rupees can make people realise their friends and foes, and how this small money can prove to be a tiresome one to get. An interesting plot which but loses charm mid-way, Paisa paisa is altogether a watchable stuff though without any big highlights.

The movie has Aju Varghese as  Balu , who has gone to Chennai for an interview which can be very crucial in his life, amidst poverty. All through his journey he keeps on calling his girlfriend Pooja(Apoorva bose), with whom he has decided to get married soon after getting a fine job. He clears the interview and in the next two hour wait for the voice test, he decides to stroll around the city.  An auto rikshaw which follows him for quite some time takes him in and Balu is thrown into an abandoned arrange within no time. By the time he realizes that he has been kidnapped , the offenders also show him a photo of a dreaded criminal with close similarity to Balu, whose head carries a prize of ten lakhs. The gangster(Daniel Balaji) now offers a deal- if he can raise a ten thousand and deposit it in in his account within a three hours, they will let him free, or else he will be handed over to the police. Balu now starts to call his friends in the close circuit. And only one among them,  Kishore (Indrajith), ad maker  who is  going through a tumultuous marriage with wife Surya (Mamta Mohandas) takes up the task as his own. Kishore was in fact planning to restart from their broken marriage on that very day and was on to his way to Surya's home, while the call for help comes in from Balu. Kishore now keeps everything at bay and  starts to find persons who can help him with this meager sum. But destiny has that , on a fateful day, even making this sum can be a bit more than a struggle.

The movie has a nice one line which could be told in a matter of an hour or below. But stretching it to 110 minutes has taken much of the tempo of the flick, with the visuals of Indrajith on his motorbike taking one-fourth of the time. Some sequences seems recurring, though with different faces. But the climax stands out for its good execution and a fine twist that explains many questions that comes up in your mind in the early hours. With not much entertainment quotient, and apart from an intention to built a suspense and associated  thrills, `Paisa paisa' may not be on movie  that may hang in the theatres for long.

The performances are uniformly good, with Aju Varghese getting a real meaty role that he does with ease. Indrajith is in his usual terrain of natural acting. Mamtha and Sandhya doesn't have much to do while Apoorva Bose appear a little over the top. The rest of the cast are fine in their smaller roles.

The technical sides maintain  quality with Kishore Mani creating some visuals that  appear good with its fine toning. Editor Nikhil venu could have somehow edited out at least a ten minutes  which could have avoided the lag in the early hours. The songs by Aby Slavin are mediocre and pace breakers, which will not help the movie.

'Paisa Paisa' hold many similarities with the recent new generation movies like `Neram, and Race' .Evidently inspired from the likes of `Run Lola run', the makers but fail to maintain the narrative standards of its `inspirations'. And so if you don't have much serious activities to do, and if you can keep any expectations at bay, this `Paisa paisa can be an onetime watch.

Rating - 5.5/10