Payanam (2011) [Tamil] – The much awaited movie from PrakashRaj’s production. His movies are generally acclaimed by the audience as good quality movies and are also considered as family entertainers. 

These type of movies should be encouraged in Tamil cinema. The movie is in par with  any Hollywood movie (of the same genre, at least in terms of quality). For Instance, the film is devoid of the usual commercial content a.k.a Masala; no duets or songs; and therefore no ‘running around the bushes’ and no ‘jumping-to-exotic-foreign-locations’ for songs.

However the movie does not bore or sag, even a bit. The whole ~140 minutes of the movie is racy and entertaining. The drama is amazingly believable / realistic, the cast is perfect and the emotions are well portrayed by the characters. Though the situation’s ought to be grim in a hijacked airplane, there are many lighter moments where the passengers provide a lot of humor and those have come out in a very natural way (Nothing looks artificial).

It is good to see Nagarjuna back in a Tamil movie after a long, long time.  Ratchagan (1997) is his previous Tamil movie. What amazes me here is.. he is still youthful, charming and energetic as we saw him in Idhayathai Thirudathey (or Geethanjali) his 1989 debutant Tamil movie!

He has played his role in this movie with great ease.. sporting stylish looks, delivers the dialogue casually and is very expressive (in looks and body language). Hope he does more Tamil films!

Kudos to PrakashRaj, RadhaMohan for giving such a nice family entertainer and that too in a low budget. In conclusion it’s a must-watch movie. And definitely worth adding to your collection, when it comes out in DVD.

-Samjosh