pattam pole Review

When a regular cinematographer turns to direction, we usually expect certain lapses which were made good only by quite a few among them. Almost all of the expected problems are explicit in the debut directorial venture of Azhagappan in `Pattom Pole'. A sort of love story that we usually witness in Tamil and Hindi, the movie grabs interest only with its different start, lead pair  and technical sides.
 
The movie opens with the shots of Karthik (Dulquer Salman) and Riya (Malavika Mohan) eloping one fine morning to Ooty in the expectations that the society and their family around will be opposing the Brahmin boy tying the knot with the Christian girl. But within days they find their purse devoid of money and start fighting for silly issues which ultimately lead them back to their safe haven of family and home, separated.  Their families have a sign of relief, but as they are from the same area in Alappuzha, they are poised to see more in the given situations which once again may change their life forever.

The highlight of the movie is the first fifteen minutes, which starts off in a very diverse style and gives us chances for a very different movie like a `Vainnaithandi Varuvaaya'. But this enthusiasm soon turns into predictability where the climax can be spotted miles away. In the efforts to make the lead pair loves again, the story moves through the common paths that we had been with many times earlier in many films. Sherin (Archana Kavi) and Mike (Anoop Menon), the leading pair's colleague and boss at work at Rossario event management company, do the supporting act that we really expects of their characters. The scripts by K Gireehkumar demanded a varied thinking, as he seems to have forgetten that the Mollywood youth here has the habit of watching every other worthy movies of Tollywood and Bollywood, where they are more than familiar with each of the sequences portrayed in the later half.

The highlight of the movie is once again  Dulquer, who appears very much as the confused Brahmin guy who finds his best friend in his father. Malavika Mohan has the looks of a model and plays her part with energy and confidence but doesn't have the capability to give the needed intensity of emotions through her face.  Anoop Menon has the best of the lines in the movie while Archana kavi also plays her part well. Jayaprakash and  Lalu Alex are left with  their age old mannerisms and characters which offer little challenges to them.

Though the emotional quotient is less, Azhaggappan excels in making the movie a visual splendour .His cameraman Selvakumar has captured some brilliantly crafted shots of the backwaters of Kuttanadu, which is optimally toned as in ads. The songs composed by M Jayachandran are also likable.

In Pattom Pole', Azhagappan suffers from a wafer thin plot and predictability. Had he approached the movie with a more compelling and unpredictable lanes, this love story could have been simply the best this year. Any way , better luck next time. If you don't have too much serious things to do, grab a popcorn, and think of a lighter watch of `Pattom Pole'.
 
Score - 6/10.