Padaiveeran Synopsis: A care-free youngster sets out to become a cop and comes back to his village to control a riot. He realises that he has to take on people, who are close to him, to manage the situation.

Padaiveeran Review: Padaiveeran is set against the backdrop of a village in Theni. It starts with the leaders of two communities giving an assurance to the police inspector that they will not clash any more. After a tiff among them, which lead to the death of two people, both the parties feel that a festival, which is due in the village, should took place for the benefit of everyone there. A dialogue in the film says that everyone has a caste name attached to him/her, which can’t be erased. It is true in the context of the characters in the film.

Muneeswaran (Vijay Yesudas) and his friends lead a happy-go-lucky-life. Munees’s father is planning to get his daughter, the former’s only sister, married, and he’s busy earning money for the same. However, Munees is a wastrel who is looked down upon by one and all in his village, except his friends. One fine day, he decides to become a police officer after he gets to know the benefits and power a cop enjoys. With the help of an ex-service man (Bharathirajaa), he joins a training camp, which he finds rigorous and tiresome. But his love for a pretty girl (Amritha) in the village makes him work hard so that he can lead a happy life with her. 

One day, the suicide of a widow, owing to her lover’s murder, creates tension among the two caste groups in the village. The police department posts a lot of personnel in the village, and Munees, too, is among them. But the situation forces him to take on some of his friends and relatives after knowing that they had role in the riot.

The theme of Padaiveeran — caste and the politics based on it — has been handled in an interesting way. A few dialogues on caste, too, are interesting. As a hero for the first time, Vijay Yesudas does a decent job, justifying the two shades of his character. Bharathirajaa continues to amaze in instilling life to each character he plays. It is fascinating to watch him portray a progressive man in an otherwise caste-oriented village. But the movie, at times, fails to create curiosity as we lose interest at a few places. The sequences appear predictable after a point, except for the climax. Overall, Padaiveeran is a not-so-bad attempt, for the honest way of handling a socially-relevant theme in today’s times.

UNDER PROGRESS