'Pusthakamlo Konni Pageelu Missing' is a
129-minutes-long film that could have been told like a tale tracing the
innate human tendency for self-contradiction. This would have been
possible if a layer was added to the story.
Sri, playing Vijay Kumar, is all set to tie the knot
with Sandhya (Supraja in a cameo) tomorrow. He and three of his close
pals (named as Balaji, Salim and Shiva) decide to play a friendly
cricket match as they meet in a ground. This proves to be a fateful day
in Vijay's life, who meets with a small accident to his head, thereby
causing him to lose his short term memory.
The friends Salim and Shiva, ever so easy-going, at
first think that Vijay is over-acting. As Vijay continues to repeat one
line a dozen times, they grow jittery and take him to a doctor. Raghu
Babu (in a cameo) assures them that he will be alright by tomorrow, but
fate seems to have something unimaginably worse from Vijay.
The friends now do not want to see Vijay's life
falling into an abyss of jeopardy. They decide not to let his family
members and Sandhya know his state of mind. The rest of the film is
about how the three friends pull wool over the eyes of everyone.
PKPM has a few positives for sure. A remake of the
Tamil movie Nadavula Konjem Pakkath Kanum, the film is a treat to watch
when the actor who played Salim is around. He is eminently watchable and
surely redeems the film almost single-handedly. Big-ticket cinema
could benefit from his comic timing in in the coming months and years.
The dialogues are crisp and definitely funny. Since
the director, Sajid Quereshi, had the original that was as simple and
light-veined as it could, all that he needed to do was select the right
face to play the memory loss patient's character.
The male camaraderie is very true to life.
Besides the aforementioned elements, the camera work
breathes life into it. BG score is another big asset. The two songs,
however, hugely disappoint.
The biggest minus is that, after a point, PKPM is
reduced to a laughter show involving the two warring friends. The
scenes in the marriage party could have much more intelligent and witty.
In the hands of a writer with rare sensibilities, the
idea could have metamorphosed into a script that ferreted out the human
frailty, hypocrisy and fleeting mindset with remarkable subtlety. That
would have been an artsy treat for sure.
If the wailing mother's dejection over the fate of
her son for the last four years lends seriousness and helps to finish
the first half on an interesting note, the climax is a let down, which
will be reviled by the audience.
The hero saying that he misses his 6th class-time crush could have been leveraged to add an emotional thread to the script.
Vijay's whimsicality becomes tedious after a point, so also the helplessness of his friends.
Verdict: On the face of it, this
film is a faithful remake of the Tamil original. A little more
imagination could have made it a memorable film. Watch it for the neat
humour.
