Papanasam is one of the most awaited movie of Kamal Hassan in 2014. Ever since the name is been tagged with the remake of Malayalam film Drishyam, the expectation grows manifold. It made more curious to see how Kamal Hassan many a time national winner will reproduce a character the Complete actor Mohan Lal did with ease which he only can, and that too directed by the same director, i.e. hero of the success story, Jeethu Joseph. Let us see if the movie lives to the expectation.
The story of Papanasam is very simple. A happily living family with father(Kamal Hassan), Mother(Gouthami) and two daughters(Niveda Thomas & Esther Anil) lives in a naturally beautiful but otherwise normal village. The family met with a situation where one of the family members kills an intruder, son of the IG, who blackmailed the peaceful family environment. The story is all about how the family faces the situation together to protect itself from the clutches of administration.
Kamal Hassan mesmerise us again with a fantastic performance. Reproducing a movie where Mohanlal sparks his brilliance is not an easy task. Then, we have Kamal one of the finest actors of India to do it here. He simply became himself to be away from the influence and the end result is that we get an exact feel as if the story happens in entirely two different families. The actor with his ever green youthfulness did the role with perfection. Kamal score some aces in post climax scenes so that we feel the climax is just replaced.(The Million Dollar Question: Kamal Hassan or Mohan Lal who is best? Answer, both excels in theirs own way. Mohan Lal with his natural acting and Kamal with his expressional acting, score 1:1) Gouthami did her role good. The Meena Magic in Drishyam is missing but Gouthami presented a completely different mother look, wow! Niveda Thomas did her part in confidence and in flashing speed. Esther Anil repeated her magic, only that she has grown up a little after the original to reduce the sympathy factor for the character she play, otherewise her acting is very good. Asha Sharath repeats her versatile acting in this movie as well. The director has given some extra space for this actress capitalise on the opportunity. Kalabhavan Mani as the villaneous police constable is good, though I expect a bit more from this versatile actor. Rest all cast did their roles well.
It is a hard task to remake a successful movie to another language without a change. It is harder to remake it with changes. Director Jeethu Joseph chooses the second option. Papanaasam is not a frame to frame copy of Drishyam. Some changes clicked and some didn’t. The change in screenplay had an overall affect on the movie. I will say by scriptwise Drishyam is superior to Papanaasam, otherwise in his direction Jeethu Joseph excels. The climax scenes got excellent coverage and the added flavor makes sure that more tears to be rolled for Kamal.
Cinematography is very good. Some beautiful sceneries, brilliant close-ups, many emotion scenes and rain captured well. (The graphical look a like rain in some scenes is not that affective though.) Editing - Good to very good. Songs - Competent and Satisfactory! Background score - a mixed bag with some affective scores and some not so affective. The good side is that it excels in the important scenes which matters the most. Overall, Papanasam is a movie which holds its strength in its storyline which is wonderful and satisfies everyone. Supplemented by brilliant acting by Kamal Hassan and others, beautiful locations and heartening situations, the movie gets lot of applauds during the movie and afterwards. A pure suspense thriller! A must watch for all who haven’t heard the story yet, this Ramadan and more!