PT Sir Review - Good Intentions, Lost in Execution!

Ashwin Ram

PT Sir is a crime drama starring Hiphop Adhi as the lead. Directed by Karthik Venugopalan of Nenjamundu Nermaiyundu Odu Raja fame and bankrolled by Vels Film International.

Premise:

Hiphop Adhi is a school sports teacher. Anikha Surendran is studying in the college run by the same institution. She gets harassed by a few boys on the road, soon after she commits suicide as the video became viral online. The hero suspects some foul play and files a police case to find what exactly happened.

Writing/ Direction:

The film has its core at the right spot, it is sensitive and efficiently handled at a couple of crucial places. Anikha Surendran’s character is written in a commendable manner and the director goes all in while exploring the woman empowerment space. The climax twist works despite creating only minimal tension around what really happened surrounding the crime. The intention is great, but the staging is a mess. The attempt to tap the balanced screenplay between a sensitive crime and commercial values is screwed up which affects even the well-executed scenes with respect to the core theme. Way too many songs that deviate from the main track. Hip Hop Adhi’s character is designed in a poor manner, his horoscope apparently signifies that he should not get into any trouble before wedding and he should question or involve in others’ problems, the entire chunk is wholly unnecessary and the drama fails miserably as it is not fluently incorporated along with the subject. The message conveyed is strong, but the emotional baggage the audience carry is on the ground level as the sequences between the hero and the villain are dummy. The courtroom scenes are passable and end on a high, however there is absolutely no logic to whatsoever happening.

Performances:

Hiphop Adhi has improved this time while enacting serious situations, but struggles during the romantic portions. His dialogue delivery is a downer as he has to carry the Erode slang which sounds a little off. Splendid role for Anikha Surendran, she is truly the show-stealer as the story predominantly revolves around her character and she has delivered such a calculated performance. Neat role for Prabhu as a lawyer, he is likable in the out-of-court scenes too. Ilavarasu does really well as the victim’s father. Plenty of other artists such as Bhagyaraj, Devadarshini, Pattimandram Raja, Vinodhini Vaidynathan, Munishkanth, Pandiarajan but not much to do on-screen. There would not have been much difference if there was no Kashmira Pardeshi, the heroine as her portions are away from the storyline. Weak villain role for Thiyagarajan, it felt more like a miscast as the spark was missing.

Technicalities:

Notorious opening song as it feels like whatever instrument is spotted at the recording session has been incorporated in the composition. The other tracks are random as well that don’t sync with the situations. Repetitive yet convincing background score, especially for the elevation scenes, the Murugar theme worked well at interval point. Such empty camera work, even the basic nativity factor of Erode was missing by not exploring anything innovative, the song montages were also presented in a lazy manner by taking place in the same school and college locations. Decent editing overall, there are lags in the form of some unwanted scenes, but many portions fit well in the cinema language because of editor Prasanna GK’s efforts.

Bottomline

The idea is familiar yet the scenes highlighting the core theme have come out well. If the commercial compromises were taken down to focus more on the story or at least package it in such a way that everything comes together like the good-old Shankar movies, this would have been a much better film.

Rating - 2.5/ 5