Pandigai, Visitor Review

Genre: Thriller: Written & Directed by FEROZ (Debut): 

Plot:
Velu, a short tempered hotel trainee waiter aims to go abroad for a better job. Muni, a gambling addict pledges his house and loses that money in cricket betting. Meanwhile, Velu meets Kavya and when he gets attracted to her, he loses his mobile which has Kavya's number in the incoming call list. Velu, desperately tries to get a new phone to reconnect with Kavya. And here is where these both join hands - one needs money to get his house back and other needs money to get a mobile. Muni who is a frequent visitor to an underworld street fight gambling run by a ruthless mafia Natwar Dada, lures the short tempered Velu to compete in street fighting by offering money for the mobile if he wins. Velu, who refuses first, gets lured later in need of money.

Velu starts winning. Now, Muni pledges his shop too and plans big to regain his house thru Velu and when everything seems going as per plan, suddenly it ends the other way and the reason behind it and how the illegal betting is organized and executed precisely by Dadas has been brilliantly narrated by Feroz in an unseen backdrop with intelligent writing and edge of the seat first half. What happens in the second half is completely different.

Cast and Crew:

Director Feroz has shown us an unseen world in how the cricket betting goes and during off season how illegal street fights are organized and executed with 'Bommais"(Fighters). The hysteria betting crowd and the fights conducted in city outskirts theatres and mall parkings are new to us and make a perfect edge of the seat thriller in the first half which ends with a terrific pre interval stunt sequence.

I think Krishna's innings starts here. Though he has acted in quite a number of movies, the real performance and artist have been exhibited in "Pandigai". He fits perfectly into the shoes of a short tempered violent guy. He has done exceptionally well in action scenes and it suits him well. Saravanan as Muni just eased away with his casual body language. Other casts too have done a decent job. Anandhi brings charm though unwanted in few scenes like that selfie taking scene in front of dada bungalow.

Pandigai is successfully pulled off by the collective and impressive work of all crew. A well thought out writing has been carried through with good pace by apt background score of R.H.Vikram and Aravind's cinematography makes us feel the dark shades of underground gambling mafia. Prabhakar has made sure that there is no lag in the pace through his crisp editing even in mere action scenes in second half. Anbuarivu's stunt choreography is outstanding. The fight sequences look raw and real.

Feroz has scripted the movie with almost like two different genres. The first half is a taut edge of the seat thriller and second half is heist action drama packed with few intelligent scenes. Going by the first half the expectation rises to see how the victims going to succeed against the mighty n crooked mafia and this heist action leaves us little disappointed for a while. But again the Director made it up with few brilliant tactics used by the victims in later parts. Karuna's handling the Police inquiry and how Krishna manages to escape from the bungalow are few scenes worth mentioning the Director's intent not to take the audience for granted. Though two songs in second half and romantic scenes look as deviation from the main plot I enjoyed them too.

Bottomline:

"Pandigai" is a good action thriller shot in an unseen n unusual backdrop worth our time n money spent. Go for it.

My Rating 3.25 / 5.00