Pannaiyarum Padminiyum

Pannaiyarum Padminiyum (The Landlord and Padmini) is a 2014 Indian Tamil comedy-drama film directed by debutant S. U.Arun Kumar, based on his own eponymous short-film. Arun Kumar was a contestant in Naalaya Iyakunar .[1] It features Vijay Sethupathi, Jayaprakash, and Aishwarya Rajesh in the lead roles, with Thulasi, Bala Saravanan, Neelima Rani, and Mahadevan in supporting roles. Sneha and Attakathi Dinesh appear in brief guest roles.[2][3] Music for the film was composed by debutant Justin Prabhakaran and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad while the cinematography is by Gokul Binoy.

Pannaiyarum Padminiyum
Release poster
Directed byS. U. Arun Kumar
Produced byM. R. Ganesh
Screenplay byS. U. Arun Kumar
Story byS. U. Arun Kumar
Starring
Music byJustin Prabhakaran
CinematographyGokul Benoy
Edited byA. Sreekar Prasad
Production
company
Magicbox Films
Release date
  • 7 February 2014 (2014-02-07)
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

The film revolves around an old man and his love for his vintage car Premier Padmini.[4][5] The film began production in January 2013 and released on 7 February 2014 to critical acclaim and positive reviews.[6][7]

Plot

The movie begins with a young man (Attakathi Dinesh) buying a car, and he says that his inspiration is from a Pannaiyar (landlord) in his village and his love for a vintage Fiat PAL Premier Padmini car.

Pannaiyar (Jayaprakash) is a wealthy and respectable man in his village. Pannaiyar and his wife Chellamma (Thulasi) are kindhearted and broadminded people who are responsible for introducing essential modern technology like TV, radio, telephones, etc., to their villagers. The villagers also enjoy the liberty of using all these items with his permission. The couple have a married daughter named Suja (Neelima Rani), who is greedy. Whenever she visits her parents, she makes it a point to return to her house with whichever device she finds pleasing to her eye.

Pannaiyar visits his close friend Shanmugam (Mahadevan), who owns the then latest (now vintage) Fiat PAL Premier Padmini car. Pannaiyar is smitten by the beauty of the car and becomes an ardent admirer. He enjoys the ride like an excited kid. Soon, Shanmugam also comes to his house, and to Pannaiyar's surprise and happiness, says that he will leave the car for a couple of months under Pannaiyar's care since he is going to visit his pregnant daughter. Pannaiyar happily agrees and from then on, he stands in front of the car, dusting and admiring it for hours at a time. Since he does not know to drive, he appoints a local young man named Murugesan (Vijay Sethupathi) as the driver and the comical household servant Peedai (Bala Saravanan) as the cleaner. Pannaiyar and Chellamma treat them like their own sons. School-going kids often swarm around the car asking for a ride in the front seat, and one little boy in particular is very much interested, so Peedai jokingly asks him to bring five rupees to get a front seat ride, and the boy starts saving his pocket money sincerely day by day. Like all the other facilities belonging to Pannaiyar, the villagers also get the opportunities to use the car for their emergency purposes. On one such day, when Murugesan is helping a family at a funeral, he comes across a beautiful girl named Malarvizhi (Aishwarya Rajesh) among the mourners. He is attracted to her instantly and after a bit of pursuing, she also falls for him, and they start to love each other.

As days pass by, Panniyar, Chellamma, and Murugesan become more and more attached to the car and are dreading to part with it if at all Shanmugam comes to take it someday. Chellamma is the sensible person out of the three, so she distances herself, and on one occasion, she refuses to even get in the car. When Pannaiyar asks why, she replies that she will get into the car only on the day when Pannaiyar drives it. Pannaiyar is determined to learn driving and asks Murugesan to train him. Murugesan fears that he will have no job with the car if Pannaiyar starts driving, so he delays and procrastinates as much as he can. As a result, Pannaiyar's driving progress is very slow. One night, Chellamma requests her husband to learn driving before their wedding anniversary so that they can go to the temple together, and he obliges.

Meanwhile, Shanmugam's daughter (Sneha) unexpectedly visits them. She says that her father suddenly died and requests him to give some property documents that her father left under his care. Pannaiyar is shocked to hear about the loss of his friend. At the same time, he feels sad to part with the car. However, when he is about to hand over the keys and documents, she says that let the car remain with him as a remembrance of her father, and she leaves it behind. Pannaiyar, Chellamma, and Murugesan are overjoyed to hear this and gift her with money as a blessing. Now that they are the proud owners of the car, the Pannaiyar family is content, and certain heartwarming incidents also change Murugesan's mind. Now, he wholeheartedly plans to train Pannaiyar to drive. One small accident happens while training, and due to rough handling, the car starts to have minor glitches and starting troubles from then on.

One day, Suja comes home. When she sees her parents have bought the car, she fights with them and says that a third person like Murugesan is using the car for driving around his girlfriend and demands that she wants to take it to her house. Unable to refuse, Pannaiyar halfheartedly lets her take it, much to the disappointment of Murugesan and Chellamma. Pannaiyar also feels bad that now their wedding anniversary plans are also ruined because of that. However, exactly on their wedding day, as the family is preparing to get into a bullock cart to go to the temple, they see an irate Suja coming to their house with the villagers pushing the car back into their house. She says that she and her husband just missed death by inches in an accident because the car suddenly stopped and scolds her father for giving a useless old car. Chellamma steps in and scolds her, and Suja storms away angrily, leaving the car behind. Murugesan, Pannaiyar and Chellamma dismiss Suja's unnecessary tantrum and are rather pleased that their car is back. They try to start the car but it unfortunately would not start. In utter frustration, Peedai jumps over the car and sits on the bonnet, and suddenly it starts.

Finally, as per their earlier plan, Pannaiyar manages to drive successfully and take his wife Chellamma in his own car to the temple on their anniversary. Meanwhile, the little boy who saved money to get a front seat ride sadly leaves out of town for higher studies without his wish being fulfilled. That boy now turns out to be the young man (Attakathi Dinesh) who bought the new car at the beginning of the movie. He visits his hometown and still searches for the car in Pannaiyar's house. He sees Murugesan, Pannaiyar, and Peedai using the very same vintage car even now and even using the same method of Peedai jumping over the bonnet to start it. Murugesan is now married to Malarvizhi and has kids. The young man is still awestruck by the car like a kid, and Murugesan asks if he needs a ride to the town. He says yes and finally sits in the front seat of the car, and his longtime wish is fulfilled at last as they drive away.

Cast

Production

Pannaiyarum Padminiyum is based on the short film of the same name.[8]

Release

Pannaiyarum Padminiyum was released on 7 February 2014. The film was screened in many International Film Festivals such as Jargar Film Festival,[9] Prague International Film Festival, Habitat Film Festival,[10] 12th Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF), 7th Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES) [11] in which it won the special jury award.[12] It was the only Tamil film selected to be screened at the 19th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).[13]

Critical reception

Upon release, the film opened to predominantly positive reviews from critics. Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu described the film as "sweetly old-fashioned" but felt that "developments have been dreamed up simply to pad out the running time" and that "the scenes and characters (added to make a feature film from a short), sometimes, feel like editing-room discards that are rightfully DVD extras".[14] Sify called it "a feel good and charming emotional drama" but that the length was "the film’s Achilles heels as it stretches and goes on and on, making it boring at times".[15] IANS gave it 4.5/5 and wrote, "In a list featuring films that tug at your heart strings, Pannaiyarum Padminiyum deserves to be right on the top. An emotionally uplifting work, the film steers away from the commercial zone by constantly rewarding us with characters that not just entertain but stay with us hours after we leave the cinema hall".[16] Bharath Vijaykumar of Moviecrow gave 3.5/5 and concluded, "A pleasant drive sans any bump that makes you soak in unadulterated emotions and leaves a smile in your face.".[17] The Times of India gave the film 3.5/5 and wrote, "Expanding his much-loved short film into a full-length feature, Arunkumar shows that he is a capable storyteller. He takes his time spinning his yarn but there is an assuredness in the telling that keeps you hooked".[18] Indiaglitz gave 3.5/5 and wrote, "Arun's direction deserves much more than appreciation, one for coming up with a clean family entertaining movie, two for bringing out a full length picture out of a short story" and added "the screenplay could have been a little quicker for the sentimental scenes look very stretchy and could have been made thinner".[19] Rediff gave it 3/5 and called the film "refreshing" and "a realistic story about the lives of ordinary people and their simple desires".[20] Behindwoods gave it 3/5 and wrote that it "brims with charm, sentiment and carries a lot of feel-good factor".[21] S. Rajasekar of Cinemalead wrote "the director seems to have lengthen the duration to avoid short film feel. Had the film's running time is just 120 minutes without deviating from the core subject it would have been a cult classic." and rated it with 2.5/5 stars.[22]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was composed by Justin Prabhakaran, and the lyrics were written by Vaali and the composer himself.[23]

Pannaiyarum Padminiyum
Soundtrack album by
Justin Prabhakaran
Released2014
GenreFilm soundtrack
Length23:43
LanguageTamil
ProducerJustin Prabhakaran
Justin Prabhakaran chronology
Pannaiyarum Padminiyum
(2014)		 Orange Mittai
(2015)
Track list
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Enga Ooru Vandi"Justin PrabhakaranAkhilesh, Allen, Gowtham, Haripriya, Anjana, Yazhini, Neyveli Sriram05:14
2."Onakkaga Poranthaenae"VaaliBalaram, Sandhya, S. P. B. Charan, Anu Anand04:52
3."Kadhal Vandhaacho"Justin PrabhakaranKarthik, Prashanthini05:23
4."Pesuraen Pesuraen"VaaliJustin Prabhakaran, Vairam, Pandiyamma, Thaayamma04:31
5."Enakkaaga Poranthaayae"VaaliS. P. B. Charan, Anu Anand03:41
Total length:23:43

Remake

Even before the release of Pannaiyarum Padminiyum, actor Nani had purchased the Telugu remake rights of the film.[24]

gollark: Idea: instead of "nuclear reactors", directly convert mass into energy.
gollark: You mean reprocessing?
gollark: Instead of not being synchronised, your nodes are synchronised.
gollark: QED.
gollark: They won't shoot at exactly the same time since they're out of sync.

References
  1. "Pannaiyarum Padminiyum aims high". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  2. "Sneha joins 'Pannayarum Padiminiyum'!". Sify. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  3. Raghavan, Nikhil (2 September 2013). "Shotcuts: Two at a time". The Hindu. Chennai, India.
  4. TNN 6 Mar 2013, 01.21PM IST (6 March 2013). "Massive set for Pannaiyarum Padminiyum". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  5. Nikhil Raghavan (19 January 2013). "Etcetera: Dream come true". Chennai, India: The Hindu. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  6. TNN 15 Jan 2013, 12.40PM IST (15 January 2013). "Pannaiyaurum Padminiyum to hit screens soon". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  7. "Vijay Sethupathy's new love is Padmini!". Sify. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  8. "Insult comedy is a bad trend: Bala". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  9. "Jargan Film Festival". Archived from the original on 23 December 2014.
  10. "Habitat Film Club".
  11. "Bangalore International film festival".
  12. "Pannaiyarum Padminiyum goes to Kerala Film Festival". The Times of India. 14 December 2014.
  13. "IFFK to showcase 7 films in Indian Cinema section". The Hindu. 6 December 2014.
  14. Vehicle Star The Hindu
  15. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review Sify
  16. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review IANS
  17. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review Moviecrow
  18. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review The Times of India
  19. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review Indiaglitz
  20. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review Rediff
  21. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review Behindwoods
  22. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum: movie review Cinemalead
  23. S. R. Ashok Kumar (30 November 2013). "Audio Beat: Pannaiyarum Padminium - Appeal across age groups". The Hindu. Chennai, India.
  24. http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2013-09-06/Nani-buys-remake-rights-of--Pannaiyarum-Padminiyum-71126
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