Ponman Review..!!
Ponman sparkles only in the final hour with fruitful storytelling and engaging episodes.
Rating – 2.5/5
The title card rolls down with a background music, capturing the essence of Kollam. We have seen this in Maheshinte Prathikaram that starts with a soulful song and a brilliant story. But Ponman, on the contrary begins on an unpleasant premise, at the backdrop of several struggling people near the coastal area. A reckless individual’s sloppy actions & nonchalant behavior creates trouble in the life of another individual after the latter agrees to lend gold for former’s sister’s marriage. The unsettling dowry culture and the practice of enforced monetary donations for the marriage are the main focus in the film. The story sheds light into this evil practice. And this premise is the film adaptation of G R Indugopan’s novel, Nalanchu Cheruppakkar.
Gold sovereigns as dowry has added more misery in the lives of people, particularly the newly wed women. Add to that, the culture of monetary donations from the marriage invitees, with which they meet the expense of a marriage. This further complicates their situation who are already struggling and hardly able to make ends meet. In this film, Steffy, played by Lijomol represent many such women. She & her mother are the victim of the story while men around her are hostile and arrogant. What makes it even more appalling is the that a man’s physique and strength is used to measure the amount of gold sovereigns he could demand as dowry. This is implied humorously in the film, signifying that toxic male behavior is at the pin point of this custom. Steffy’s brother, played by Anand Manmadhan is a party slave but his violent nature is not justified by his party. He is worthless for his family and thus the first villain in Steffy’s life.
The problems complicate during her wedding, bringing her at the forefront of an impending clash between the characters of Basil Joseph & Sajin Gopu, who play Ajeesh & Mariyano respectively. But these episodes take a long time to develop the characters and the main conflict. The screenplay is unexciting and couldn’t build the tension from very early on. The humor in the story momentarily engages but the narration kills the interest with some dull moments. They could have easily skipped a couple of episodes. Most of the time, there is a lengthy display of toxic masculinity and haughtiness from male characters. They swear, abuse and create ruckus after getting intoxicated. This continues even in the latter half as well. This is something that felt stretched and repetitive. But the storytelling improves in the latter half.
The film starts to build the interest from the pre intermission point. There is a scene where Ajesh desperately waits for Steffy & Mariyano to come out after their wedding night. This scene indirectly implies the brutality faced by a woman during her first night. All of a sudden, the screenplay becomes tight and shift the focus on the conflict. There are more dramatic and emotional elements in the story. The audience would easily connect with Ajesh with just one scene. The tension in the conflict intensifies with each passing episode. All of the confrontation scenes between Ajesh & Maryano find its purpose. With a bit of exaggeration, audience would gasp for air in the climax sequences.
Basil’s character arc is so well written, that it is subtle and on point. This is the reason that the audience would root for his character. The never-say-die attitude of the character hits the right chord with the audience. The performance of Basil as Ajesh is nothing short of brilliant. He conveys all sort of emotions really well and it is evident that he has fully absorbed the character before performing it on screen. Loved the scene where he interacts with Steffy’s brother in a lodge and the audience will see Ajesh here, who is going through a lot and in serious trouble. The same can be said about Sajin Gopu & Lijomol. They have a meaty role to perform and have done that impressively. Steffy raises to the occasion and does not act like a victim. In those closing shots, there is a well-defined message about the evil practice of dowry through a dialogue.