Producer: Kathiresan
Director: Vettrimaran
Cast: Dhanush, Ramyaa, Murali, Bhanupriya, Karnas
Music: Prakash Kumar GV
 
Vetrimaran, former aide of Balu Mahendra, graduates into a director with his debut venture ‘Polladhavan’ that has Dhanush and Divya as the centrifugal leads. Although a debut product, Vetrimaran proves with his first film that he has the making of a great director and has learned his lessons well under the tutelage of Mahendra. This film is his attempt to lock horns with the dark and dreary underbelly of Chennai gangland.

For this film, the debut director seems to have gone back to 40’s Hollywood classic film ‘The Bicycle Thief’ for inspiration. ‘Polladhavan’ is about a happy-go-lucky, candid and lower middle-class unemployed young man Prabhu (Dhanush) who lives in the slums of Vadapalani- Saligramam area of Chennai and dreams of owning the ultimate youth ride- Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle someday. His family, counting an austere father (Murali), a loving mother (Bhanupriya) and his sister, blames his friends (Karnas and Santhanam) for their son’s errant ways. At one instance, when Prabhu is caught stealing money from his father’s wallet, his father in a fit of rage throws at him all his savings when accused of doing nothing for his son.

With all the money, Prabhu gets for himself a black Bajaj Pulsar. And with bike comes a good job in the bank, his girlfriend’s Hema’s (Divya) admiration and his father’s respect for him. He feels that his life has changed overnight due to the bike.

But then a sudden twist of fate puts back his life into an unprecedented chaos. All hell breaks loose when Pabhu first encounters the dreaded goons Selva (Kannada actor Kishore) and his psychotic younger brother Ravi (Daniel Balaji) who run a drug racket. One things lead to another and one-day Prabhu finds that his cherished bike has got stolen. And with the bike goes away his job as well as his peace. And then the hunt for the bike begins that takes us on a bumpy ride through the rest of the tale with a thrilling climax waiting inside a freezing ice factory.

The film may be a word-to-word pick from the Hollywood blockbuster but that doesn’t mars the credibility of Vetrimaran in anyway who has done everything to make the film entirely a Kollywood potboiler with stylized shooting, dim lightings, virgin locations, sizzling scenes, good starcast, outstanding performances and yes tastefully tuned songs. G.V Prakash’s music and background score makes the film all the more delectable.

On the flipside, too much of snipe hunt between Dhanush and Daniel makes the film a bit intolerable after a point. Also the censors generous mincing of scenes and dialogues here and there makes the film all the more pain to watch. However, credit should be given to Vetrimaran for extracting out life like performances from his cast.

Dhanush as the fiery youth is mind blowing here. His cool stunts empowered by his hot deliveries make him all the more riveting. Kishore excels in his villainy act and so does Daniel. Divya looks breathlessly stunning all the way. Murali, Bhanupriya, Karnas, Santhanam and Anju are impressive in their well etched out acts.

Vetrimaran’s love for Quentin Tarantino type of violence is well evident throughout. But it is his excellent characterization of his lead character that wins him the brownie points. On the whole, this film makes for a great watch with its high-speed energy and great songs hardly diminishing its impact anywhere.