Pennum Porattum movie review: Rajesh Madhavan’s chaotic comedy is like Jallikattu on steroids

Set in the fictional village of Pattada in Palakkad district, Kumar (an extraordinary Dinesh Pepo), a local loafer who claims he doesn’t believe in the institution of marriage and is interested only in lustful relations, one day sends a dirty text to his friend’s sister, Charu (Raina Radhakrishnan). However, she rebukes him and immediately shoots down his proposition. Meanwhile, Suttu (voiced by Tovino Thomas), Charu’s boyfriend Baburaj’s (Satheesh Pulikka) pet dog, flees his home after biting Baburaj’s mother, leading the locals to assume he’s rabid. Amid the chaos to capture Suttu, the news of Kumar’s dirty text leaks and spreads like wildfire across Pattada, piquing people’s interest so much that they split into two groups — one chasing Suttu and the other determined to add fuel to the fire sparked by Kumar’s message. The remainder of the movie unfolds like a chain reaction.

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In a way, Pennum Porattum can be dubbed as Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu (2019) on steroids. While both movies revolve around an animal on the loose and human beings using this scenario as a pretext to unleash the ferality within, Pennum Porattum explores more sociopolitical issues, including sexism, much like Porattu Nadakam — the satirical folk drama performed mainly by the marginalised Panan community — whose essence Rajesh Madhavan’s directorial has absorbed, in contrast to Jallikattu’s exploration of individual and mob psychology. At the same time, Rajesh and writer Ravisankar have also not compromised in pulling out all the stops to ensure that the chaos and the humour arising from it do not dip below a certain level in any scene.

Whether human beings are inherently violent or non-violent is also a question the movie explores. In a flashback scene at the start, we see a man reforming the people of Pattada in the aftermath of a riot, urging them to leave their weapons behind. Meanwhile, a little boy picks up a knife without anyone noticing and walks away. For a moment, let’s consider the aforementioned man as Mahatma Gandhi, widely regarded as one of the most significant advocates of non-violence in the world. Despite leaving behind their weapons at his behest, the inherent violent nature within the people never went away. As a result, they turned riotous at the first opportunity they got, and we can find several examples for this from history.

In Pennum Porattum, too, we can see something similar. Irrespective of the matter being as trivial as a dog, who’s only suspected of rabies, going off-leash, the people of Pattada banded together immediately, up in arms, and decided to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Interestingly, the knife the kid picked is never used by anyone across the movie, highlighting that people don’t even need conventional weapons to instigate violence.

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Rajesh and Ravisankar don’t end it there. In parallel to the track exploring the Pattada natives’ pursuit of Suttu, they also dissect the many layers within human beings, stained by pettiness and shades of grey. By brilliantly setting the entire track showing the aftermath of Kumar’s unwarranted dirty text to Charu against the backdrop of a Panapayattu — an event organised by families in certain parts of Kerala to raise money — the makers highlight how shameless people can be when it comes to monetary matters. They then position these people’s inherent sexism right next to it, thus shedding light on both.

Yet, Pennum Porattum never loses its essence and stays true to its absurdist core from start to finish. Rajesh and Ravisankar also subvert the tropes typically found in Malayalam dramas to heighten the absurdity, the most notable being the portrayal of the village elder — usually depicted as the epitome of goodness and a beacon of hope — as the biggest pervert and chaos instigator in Pattada. Intriguingly, it is the kid who initially picked up the knife from the set of discarded weapons who grows up to be the so-called village elder, Sujathan (a mesmerising Shanooj Alanallur). Although he is referred to by all as maashu (a term usually used for teachers), he often makes the darkest statements, such as, “Don’t kill the dog (Suttu) if you catch him. Wait for me; I will burn him alive,” with a smile on his face. From the elderly people’s insatiable ego, for which they would even use their children’s lives as pawns, and their hypocrisy in matters of so-called morality, to masculinity and femininity, Pennum Porattum liberally subverts many conventionally defined concepts and exposes them for what they actually are.

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However, the movie falters mainly in its juxtaposition of Suttu and Charu’s stories. Although the chaos does help to an extent, there are quite a few moments when it seems the makers were clueless about how to interweave the two tracks, resulting in Suttu’s story being overlooked for long stretches. Despite the idea of “a bunch of ‘rabid’ people chasing a non-rabid dog” having immense potential to be fleshed out further, Rajesh and Ravisankar instead focus too much on the people, making the narrative boring after a point due to chaos on loop. The absurdity also goes overboard at times, making the movie feel all over the place. Nonetheless, the brilliant performances and exceptional work by the technical team, particularly cinematographer Sabin Uralikandy, composer Dawn Vincent, and editor Chaman Chakko, manage to compensate for these shortcomings.

Although the movie challenges sexism, it also features a few problematic portrayals. Whenever a war of words erupts between characters, the conversation immediately veers towards the affairs of one woman or the other. Moreover, when someone wants to shame another, they typically bring up an affair (rumoured or not) involving a woman in their family, thereby propagating the patriarchal notion that the only way a person or a family can be shamed is through their women’s sexual lives. While all other characters have many layers and possess enough grey in them, the only flat character (albeit by design) in Pennum Porattum is Charu. Although we hear references to her frequently and occasionally hear her voice over the phone when she contacts Baburaj, Charu is largely overlooked, as if her character exists only to instigate chaos in Pattada, much like Suttu’s case.

While it’s impossible to name all the actors who have delivered brilliant performances in the movie, given the many, special mention should go to Sumithra Krishnan, Akshaya Vijayakumar, Varsha Valsan, Devadas, Vijaya Lakshmi, and Manoj Kumar N. Rajesh Madhavan also deserves extra commendation for his brilliant scene compositions, staging, and visual choreography, as he manages to give an impressive rhythm to the chaos in nearly every sequence.

Pennum Porattum movie cast: Raina Radhakrishnan, Rajesh Madhavan
Pennum Porattum movie director: Rajesh Madhavan
Pennum Porattum movie rating: 3 stars