Pon Manickavel (பொன் மாணிக்கவேல்): There was a lot of excitement ahead of this film, Prabhu Deva appearing in a police character which he has never played before, a title taken from the name of a famous police officer who is known across the state for his efficiency and honesty and music by D.Imman. All that couldn’t save a disastrous screenplay. Available on Disney+Hotstar it gets my ‘Rotten’ rating.
Pon Manickavel (Prabhu Deva) is an honest and sharp police officer who has resigned from his job after being disgusted with the system. He is called back to duty after the sensational murder of a sitting judge. Much to the annoyance of his team, Manick handles the case indifferently – it was more than obvious that for a Tamil cinema hero to behave this way, he has some secrets – this spoils any suspense Director A. C. Mugil Chellappan and his writing team would’ve planned for. Soon the film falls off from the tracks and makes unrelated turns. It felt like I was watching a shuffled playlist of earlier police film trailers. Testing your patience and intelligence at all levels was the climax.
Nivetha Pethuraj is an actor who has demonstrated a lot of acting potential in her films like Thimiru Pudichavan or Oru Naal Koothu but gets underutilized in this film with a placeholder character. I feel sorry for Prabhu Deva, the man appears super smart and fit for his age and has put in a lot of effort in the action sequences, but the film comes uninspiring and better to be avoided.
Pon Manickavel (பொன் மாணிக்கவேல்)
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