Why Pyaar Prema Kaadhal is the best thing that happen to Tamil Cinema in a while?

Special Column by Suhansid Srikanth

Every single time when I come out of a light, breezy, heart warming film.. say a Chi Arjun La Sow that came recently or a Pellichoopulu or a Sammohanam.. I crave badly for a Tamil film to enter this zone. Between heartbreaking love stories like DilSe, VTV, Annayum Rasoolum or a Sairat and cheesy melodramatic love flicks like a Raja Rani or Kumki kinda.. there is this middle zone.. made of love stories that spell a magical realism! One that takes a fine stand between cinema and reality! Films like Shuddh Desi Romance.. Band Baaja Baarat.. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.. Rom-coms that can tickle and devastate your heart at the same time!

These sort of little films that don’t have a mindblowing story.. jaw dropping screenplay or seat-edge twists and revealations are very essential for any industry that want to reinvent itself. The growth of Tamil Cinema is not only in receiving films like Aruvi or a Kuttram Kadhidhal.. but also in such films that genuinely shift gears within its limits of entertainment and experiment. 

PPK has 10+ songs.. choreographed dance.. exotic foreign locations.. slow motions.. funny one-liners.. everything that you would expect out of a entertainer. But it also deals with relationship issues.. love.. casual sex.. explores Livin culture, the need for and  individualistic opinions about marriage.. talks about the “space” one needs within a relationship. In that sense, PPK breaks taboos in a roll! 

Before Pyaar Prema Kaadhal, I don’t remember the last time I was taken aback by a Tamil film being this light and hearty with its content. The closest it happened was with OKKanmani. But it is ManiRatnam! He would make a film the way he wants to, even under a dystopian dictatorship. There was Balaji Mohan’s “Kaadhalil sodhappuvadhu yeppadi?” in 2012. Had we given it an appreciation it deserved.. the trend would have started way long back then! There was Vignesh Shivan’s “Poda Podi” in the same year as well. It failed to translate better from paper to screen. Hence the concept of feel good films have always been crushed by various reasons ranging from box office reasons to casting to etc..  

What makes Pyaar Prema Kaadhal so different and unique from other so called trendy films like Siva Manasula Sakthi / Raja Rani is, it doesn’t degrade the generation’s idea of love to evoke claps and laughter. There is no friend or old uncle to quote his life scenario to prove how Gen Z is spoiled or how women ditch men since the evolution of mankind. 

Sree’s character in the film is not designed as how Rajesh would design his typical male character. It doesn’t ogle like a creep or stalk like a despo but expresses his love like any other normal middle class guy. Even when the character had to consume alcohol and banter about how the girl used him.. we see her giving it back at no blink of an eye, asking “if so, did you fall in love even before knowing my character?”. And by stating that she asks him what is that he was falling for if he thinks her character is bad.

The idea of depicting a male with all his vulnerabilities itself deserve a huge applause. How often we see our men cry in films. Well! Am not talking about crying when someone dies or when government ditches a village or something. But to cry for himself. Harish Kalyan is zbxehgebrbiuwhge cute. And it is a great surprise to see a male lead in a trendy love story being this vulnerable and softened with emotions. He neither comes as a gym fit handsome hunk nor as a hero who would crack Thala – Thalapathy worshipping dialogues to shake the theatre off the floor. For half the film.. his decisions and activities revolve around a motherly affection and influence. Even when it comes to romance.. it is not like he is just head on heels crazy about her but he holds the core of his emotions under his senses. 

And.. The film is presented to us like a cassata icecream.. glossed up with beautiful cinematography and an addictive soundtrack! There are well crafted cinematic moments too. Like the scene where they decide to break up as a theatrical dance play happens in the stage. For a moment, I was reminded of the sequence in Imtiaz Ali’s Jab Harry met Sejal where they both despite being far away in minds get moved by the same piece of Opera! We have seen thousands of birthday gift sequences in Tamil Cinema. But the way it is executed in PPK really brings emotions upfront. Just as the lights turn on in row.. someone near to my seat screamed “Remo!”. Yeah! But there it was more of a heroism tactic! Here it is not to awe her in surprise.. but to show us someone who is in awe of her!

After years and years of debut directors choosing thrillers, horrors or adult comedy as their safe bet first film.. it is nice to see a director who can make a film out of life and emotions. Am more happy that here is a Tamil film that don’t want to say everything in Caps to its audience. I would call it the best thing that happened to the industry this year. Elan, for sure is an arrival. Not so often you see a writer – director in Tamil who reflects his own thought process about relationships and idea of love on screen as clear as how Elan did! I wish PPK pave way for much more good stories. Cos.. In subtle ways.. PPK holds a torch that shows us a LED sign.. “Chill the fcuk down Tamil Cinema!” 

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Pyaar Prema Kaadhal Review