''Padavettu'' () is a 2022 Indian
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
-language
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
action thriller
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include lif ...
film written and directed by Liju Krishna. It was produced by
Yoodlee Films in association with Sunny Wayne Productions. The film starring
Nivin Pauly
Nivin Pauly (born 11 October 1984) is an Indian actor and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of several awards including two Kerala State Film Awards and three Filmfare South awards. Nivin auditioned for ...
,
Aditi Balan
Aditi Balan is an Indian actress, dancer and model who works in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. She is best known for her role as Aruvi in the film ''Aruvi''. After the completion of her law degree in Chennai, she appeared in an brief role ...
and
Shammi Thilakan
Shammi Thilakan is an Indian actor and dubbing artist who is active in Malayalam films. He is the son of veteran actor Thilakan. He lent his voice for Napoleon in ''Devasuram'', Prem Nazir in ''Kadathanadan Ambadi'' and for Nassar in '' Gh ...
depicts the story of the oppressed section of society in northern Kerala.
The film was released theatrically on 21 October 2022.
Plot
Ravi is a jobless guy living with his aunt Pushpa. He just sits at home all day and fights with everyone including his aunt and neighbors. His house is in a bad shape now since they do not have money to repair it. They have given an application in the Panchayat for money to repair it. Despite Pushpa always complaining in the Panchayat meetings, they don't seem interested to consider her request.
A local politician named Kuyyali hears this and sees it as an opportunity. He rebuilds their house for them without their permission and keeps a plaque infront of their home advertising his party. Everyone who passes by in front of their home starts noticing it and that irks Ravi and so he breaks it at night. When Kuyyali hears about it, he tries to take advantage of the situation and accuses the opposition party of the wrong doing. Ravi tells the police that it was he who does that. Kuyyali rebuilds the plaque and threatens Ravi that if he breaks it again, it will be bad for Ravi.
Ravi's neighbor Mohanan's dad gets killed by a wild boar one night when he was supervising his field. To take revenge, Mohanan goes to the field the next night to kill the boar but boar attacks him and he gets injured. Ravi turns up at the scene and kills the Boar instead.
Ravi decides not be lazy in life anymore and starts farming at his home. Meanwhile, Kuyyali through his shoddy schemes tries to take control of all farmer lands. Ravi objects. In revenge, Kuyyali decides that the end location for his election rally will be Ravi's home and they will destroy the home and farm land. Ravi starts destroying the plaque they kept at his home. The party workers starts to fight with Ravi. Ravi wins and then tells Kuyyali never to step on his home again. Ravi proclaims that the farm land belongs to the farmers.
Cast
*
Nivin Pauly
Nivin Pauly (born 11 October 1984) is an Indian actor and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of several awards including two Kerala State Film Awards and three Filmfare South awards. Nivin auditioned for ...
as Ravi
*
Aditi Balan
Aditi Balan is an Indian actress, dancer and model who works in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. She is best known for her role as Aruvi in the film ''Aruvi''. After the completion of her law degree in Chennai, she appeared in an brief role ...
as Shyma
*
Shammi Thilakan
Shammi Thilakan is an Indian actor and dubbing artist who is active in Malayalam films. He is the son of veteran actor Thilakan. He lent his voice for Napoleon in ''Devasuram'', Prem Nazir in ''Kadathanadan Ambadi'' and for Nassar in '' Gh ...
as Kuyyali
*
Shine Tom Chacko
Shine Tom Chacko (born 15 September 1983) is an Indian actor and former assistant director who works in Malayalam cinema. After working as an assistant to director Kamal for about 9 years, he forayed into acting through the film. ''Gaddama''. ...
as Mohanan
*
Indrans
Indrans is an Indian actor and former costume designer, who appears in Malayalam films.His mentor was Shiyas M S, a law college student. He started his film career as a costume designer and actor in 1981 and got a breakthrough in 1994 with the ...
as Raghavan Mash
*
Vijayaraghavan
Vijayaraghavan (born 20 December 1951) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He is popular for his character roles. He is the son of popular drama and cinema artist N. N. Pillai. He got his break by playing the icon ...
as Yohannan
* Manoj Omen as Manoj
* Remya Sureshas Pushpa
*
Kainakary Thankaraj
Kainakary Thankaraj ( ml, കൈനകരി തങ്കരാജ്, 18 October 1946 – 3 April 2022) was an Indian actor, who worked in the Malayalam movie industry and Malayalam Drama Theater Industry.
Life and career
Kainakary, the son o ...
*
Sunny Wayne
*
Subeesh Sudhi as Sasi
Production
The film was shot at Maloor in
Kannur
Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial hu ...
, which is the native village of Liju Krishna. Around a thousand people from the village were trained through crash course in acting for the film.
Principal photography began in December 2019 in
Kannur district.
First schedule was wrapped in February 2020. Second schedule was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in India
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...
. It was wrapped up on 15 March 2022 in Kannur.
Release
The first trailer was released on 7 October 2022 at
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi
The Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, locally known as Kaloor Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kochi, Kerala, India. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 spectators. For Indian Super League matches it is restricted to 39,000. The ...
in front of
Manjappada
Manjappada (; ) are an organised supporters' group of the Kochi based professional football club Kerala Blasters FC, which competes in Indian Super League, the top tier league of Indian football. One of the largest and most active fan groups ...
before the opening game of the
2022–23 Indian Super League season
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
between
Kerala Blasters
Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established i ...
and
East Bengal
ur,
, common_name = East Bengal
, status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan
, p1 = Bengal Presidency
, flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg
, s1 = East ...
. The film was released theatrically on 21 October 2022.
Critical reception
Anna M. M. Vetticad
Anna Mercy Mathews Vetticad, commonly known as Anna M. M. Vetticad, is an Indian film critic and journalist. She has been in the field of journalism since 1994. Vetticad has also hosted her own interview show, ''Star Trek'', on Headlines Today ...
of
Firstpost
''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18.
The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Ragh ...
praised the cinematography and score but found that the film lacked cohesion: “Great camerawork and music require scripts on which to pin themselves. Sadly, the writing of Padavettu is too defused to serve this purpose." Rating the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, Vetticad wrote, "The first half is solid, but leads into a second half clouded by mixed metaphors and hazy philosophising…”
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 10518176
Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020s Malayalam-language films
2022 films
2022 drama films
Films scored by Govind Vasantha
Indian political drama films
2022 directorial debut films