Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Director: R Balki
Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)
Unlike his wife and neighbours, Lakshmikant Chauhan is unimpressed by the Hanuman idol at a village fair that breaks coconuts inserted in its mouth, simply because he can see how it works. Lakshmi makes things. He works in a factory, welding chains onto playground swings and taking care of whatever needs fixing, but he is at heart a questioner of the status quo and a finder of solutions. One of the first things we see him do is repurpose a wind-up toy into an onion-chopping machine, in order to spare his wife some sobs.
Akshay Kumar in PadMan (Image courtesy: Instagram)
In R Balki's inspiring and touching film, we have this very hero trying on a sanitary napkin, then riding a bicycle with his trousers bloodied. In a country where people buy undershirts based on what Kumar claims to wear, this feels historic.
It is important here to note that while many a film can be labelled relevant or commendable, that does not automatically make it a fine film. PadMan written by Balki and Swanand Kirkire, based on a short story by Twinkle Khanna is a genuinely strong movie, telling an unlikely story in likeable fashion and doing it briskly and smartly. This is not a groanworthy melodrama or a government-flattering Public Service Announcement or an overt collection of clichs (all descriptions that suit Kumar's 2017 film Toilet), but instead an intelligent film that pays attention to detail.
Akshay Kumar in PadMan (Image courtesy: Instagram)
All he wants to do is serve. Lakshmi lovingly wraps each batch of homemade napkins in leaves and puts a jasmine flower on top. The film's first song Aaj Se Teri tells us that Lakshmi has devotedly given himself over to his wife and will do anything for her, and asks merely for a smile, or for her to make malpua for him once in a while. Written by Kausar Munir, the songs have consistently superb lyrics. There is a particularly terrific line during one performed at a young girl's coming-of-age function, saying -kal tak thi gul, ab gulel lagegi,- meaning she was a flower till yesterday but today she's the catapult from the plucked to the weaponised an intentionally pointed line in a film about giving women the power of choice.
The first time we see Kumar, he's been catapulted already. He's smiling his trademark smile wider than ever that broad grin of a good-looking doofus looking as if he can't believe his luck at getting married. The actor is exceptional in the film, calm and keen-eyed when at work, and it takes balance and restraint to play a character so singular and earnest and yet never appear cloying. There is a tenderness to his touch, be it when lifting a fingerful of candyfloss or when patting a girl's pillow with mosquito ointment (instead of daring to touch her). At one point, when a sanitary napkin of his making is described by a first user as -just another pad,- this attaining of regular' status makes him swell with glee. It is an undoubtedly affecting performance, and one of the actor's best. He is simplistic but never a simpleton. There are times Kumar appears naive, but only in the way that people who change the world often do.
The cinematography by PC Sreeram is characteristically strong, with lots of aerial shots to emphasise greens and wide shots to establish the world. Amit Trivedi's music is rather lovely, though the background score is irritatingly overdone as it tries to spell things out, swelling with hope and sighing with despair and doing so repetitively enough for us to notice. This is one of the reasons why, at some points, the film feels stretched, since we see Lakshmi's triumphs converting some people over, and then again have to wait for further triumphs to convert the rest. Still, the lack of overwrought hysterics and a fine pace keeps the story ticking.
The film ends with a grand speech delivered to the United Nations in a peculiar pidgin English, something Lakshmi winningly calls Linglish. It is a smashing speech, given to us in full, and really puts things in perspective as we see how, without an eye on profit or commerce, this inventor soldiered on to make the world a cleaner place. I loved this stretch because, for once, broken English was not played for laughs but for sincerity, and because Kumar handles it masterfully.
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