The loyalists have more to rejoice in the coming year as Selva's first film as hero 'Saani Kaayidham' directed by Arun Matheshwaran and costarring Keerthy Suresh as the female lead. The Selva fans are loyal to him irrespective of the fate of films at the box office. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d ever type in a film review.Ace filmmaker Selvaraghavan is one of the few among his ilk who enjoys a fan following that is equal to that of heroes in Tamil cinema. The most conviction you spot in this film is when actor Richard barks. But I suppose these are nuances we must not really care about when discussing a film like Paramapadham Vilayattu, which cares about very little, including character strength, consistency, conviction in performance, and coherence in storytelling. This film, promoted on the popularity of its woman actor, can’t even be bothered to let her extricate herself from danger. You see this man for the first time when he drinks and dances with a group of women for a song that begins with a Telugu cuss word for some strange reason, and soon as the song ends, this strange man takes on the mantle of rescuing Gayathri and child. There’s another bizarre idea-that of a man introduced in an item number late into the film, suddenly becoming part of the film’s narrative.
It’s the oddest thing I have seen in Tamil cinema this year, and yes, I know that the year includes Bhoomi’s villain relieving himself in a living room flower vase. Richard seems in a trance during these scenes in which David is seemingly having a conversation with his dog through barking and growling.
At first, I was confused, but soon enough, was crying in laughter once I realised the futility of making sense of this film. He shows curious variety in making these barking noises: he howls, he snarls… you get the whole package even if you are not sure why. In more than one scene in this rudderless film, he is shown to be barking… at a dog. I concluded that he was barking mad but didn’t know at the time that he would go on to be literally so. In one scene, after asking Gayathri which god she worships, he leaps on a car like Aaruchaami, and proceeds to make unhinged impressions of various deities. But soon, his eccentricities take control of this film. He starts off predictably enough, demanding that Gayathri hand over a ‘chip’. Take, for example, the psycho assassin called David (Richard) who prowls about in this film.
It’s fun when you are playing an actual game of snakes and ladders, not when you are watching a film. You never know what bizarre development awaits you in Paramapadham Vilayattu. What! It’s a film that has you on the edge of your seat, for all the wrong reasons. But soon, she gets out and there’s a chase sequence, and out of nowhere, there’s an item song. A kidnapped Gayathri is trying to utilise unusual objects in her room to try and fashion her escape. Certain political developments at the beginning, seem like riffs on real incidents, but then, this attempt to satirise State politics stops without warning, when the story turns into a survival thriller. A Chief Minister is assassinated, and a righteous doctor, Gayathri (Trisha), turns detective, putting her deaf daughter in harm’s way.