Padaiveeran (2018) is yet another caste based Tamil Nadu village story. Vijay Yesudas is a carefree youth in a village affected by tensions between the upper and lower caste population, he joins Police training on a whim and then returns to the village as part of a police force that is sent to quell a unrest. In between, he falls in love with a village girl Malar, played by Amritha.
There are moments in the film which come out well, like the dialogues by Bharathiraja who comes as an ex-serviceman and is the only man who speaks sense in the whole village. Vijay Yesudas has tried his best but falls short on his acting especially when it comes to emotions and romance. Amritha has played her role well, she reminds me of Ritika Singh of Irudhi Suttru (2016).
The confusion on who the protagonist really is the failure for Padaiveeran – the Director has attempted to show the conflict in the person, between his caste loyalty, his love, his duty as a policeman and as a human being – unfortunately, none of these facades gets covered properly, so we are unable to connect with the character. For me, the film lacked anything original and felt like a rehash of earlier films like Kathiravanin Kodai Mazhai (2016), Chandi Veeran (2015) and Rummy (2014).
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