Ponmagal Vandhal

Comes across clearly as a tip of the hat to raising awareness to the rape, sex trafficking and child molestation epidemic in the world and India. But does not quite make it as great cinema that one would pay for to go to the theatre more like a TV serial docudrama that is over dramatized. Compare with Kamal's awesome Papanasam and you will feel the difference between good cinema and a good TV docudrama

But .... worth a look and gets the job done, though it lacks the chokehold of a gripping genre thriller

The plot starts after 10 minutes with the father (Bhagyaraj) re-opening a 15-years old case seeking justice for a psychopath women killer. The first half, was usual with Jyotika producing evidence and the other party proving the evidences void. The second half, is where the subject matter of the movie is revealed. The last part of the movie though emotional and cinematic, defies logic. I particularly liked the judge character and the short cameo with his assistant. Though there are cliche scenes likes public opinion, credit should be given to the director for getting to the point straight forward and not using male bashing, victimization routine seen in other women-centric movies!!

The story and the setup holds a lot of promise, but then the script goes in tangents ranging from emotion to logic to women empowerment and overall preachy. This makes the movie as a whole weak. For instance the court scenes were overly melodramatic with nothing to do with the case or facts. Don't think any court will allow for 10 minute verbal tirades and such melodrama. It also feels as if the movie was made to showcase Jyotika'a acting prowess and she has done well, but this make the movie unrealistic and overly dramatic. Hope the director would have transformed such an interesting story into something more powerful. A missed opportunity.

This is one of the usual movies with not much surprises or twist in the story. There should be a fierce debate in courtroom scenes which was totally missing in this movie. Lots of loopholes. Good time pass to watch from home if you have a lot of patience and keep your expectations very low. Jyotika is trying to replicate Nayantara's success streak who had some good movies like Imaikka Nodigal, Aram etc but she chose good subjects (those which i mentioned) but we see a lot of movies from Jyotika that are not up to the par/expectations of the viewers. She needs to improve on her story selection or whomever is advising her to take these kinds of movies

Good emotional thriller movie with a social messege. Good screenplay. Climax super with a small twist. Good acting by Jyothika. Only negative is that there is no logic in court verdict as it was not based on evidences.