LAUGHS AND LESSONS GALORE

THE core message of Aan Paavam Pollathathu is 'Love each other' and through 120-minutes of its runtime points out that loving unconditionally is easier said than done.

- AKSHAY KUMAR

Also, it says another important thing: don't keep scores against your spouse. Considering the fact that the film is titled, Aan Paavam Pollathathu, the film is indeed more magnanimous in forgiving a man's failings than a woman's. Yet, the film succeeds in making us enjoy all the things it gets right.

Aan Paavam Pollathathu begins in the home of Shiva (Rio Raj) and Sakthi (Malavika Manoj), as the iconic scene from Thiruvilaiyadal featuring Shiva (SIvaji Ganesan) and Sakthi (Savithri) fighting to establish their supremacy, is played on the TV. We are then showed how the present-day Shiva and Sakthi got hitched in a marriage arranged by their parents. From a happy marriage, the narration fast-forwards to the point where they are at the threshold of a divorce. The film does an endoscopy on what went wrong and goes on to tell how unrealistic expectations can ruin a marriage.

Firstly, the neutralising effect of the film's duration lingers throughout. A good scene doesn't overstay, and a relatively bad scene doesn't get intolerable. The economy of time makes sure the film doesn't falter. This accomplishment displays the promise of Kalaiarasan Thangavel's directing chops right in his debut. He minces no words on the hypocrisy of a couple's parents and the toxic generational expectations they espouse. Take, for instance, Shiva shushing his grandmother for her comment on Sakthi wearing a sleeveless blouse to a family function. He says, “You never wore a blouse in your young age and now you find fault with her wearing a sleeveless one.”