Padakkalam movie review: A college supernatural flick that's not the fantasy comedy it wants to be
Whenever a movie is set on a college campus with a group of friends and some professors as the key players, you can expect that there will be a lot of laughs, some action and perhaps, mystery as well. Padakkalam, helmed by debutant director Manu Swaraj, aims to be just that except that it is meshed with a supernatural element, a la Indiana Jones and the desi 'parakaya pravesha' (body swapping).
Jithin (Sandeep Pradeep) is in love with his engineering college classmate Jeevika (Niranjana Anoop) but she suddenly decides to break up with him citing personal differences. While a heartbroken Jithin is trying to brainstorm with his friends - Ramzad (Arun Pradeep), Kannan (Saaf) and Nakul (Arun Ajikumar) - on what do, a college strike is on with Jithin's department demanding that their HOD be replaced as he got the job with fake documents.
Now, senior professor Shaji (Suraj Venjaramoodu) is eyeing the post as is a younger, student-friendly Renjith (Sharafudheen). Shaji gets elevated as HOD naturally as he is senior but Jithin and his friends discover something is amiss when Shaji starts behaving strangely and their suspicion falls on Renjith. They believe that Renjith has used some supernatural power and/or black magic to control Shaji and start to investigate this. They shockingly discover that he can control people through some means and are worried what his main objective is. And they get into a major issue. What has gone wrong? What does Renjith do? How does this situation get resolved?
While the premise of the story - the supernatural and body swapping element - is interesting, the entire aspect of setting it in a college and using it in the context of a professor who eyes an HOD chair is extremely flimsy. The story is weak from the beginning and while the four students, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Sharafudheen have been used to elicit laughs using situations, mannerisms and dialogues, it's only partly effective. It is the performances of Suraj Venjaramoodu and Sharafudheen (especially after the body swap occurs) that stand out and it is thanks to them that the movie keeps the audiences engaged for the most part. However, this is just not enough to make the movie totally fun ride. The female characters in the movie - Jeevika and Shaji's wife (Pooja Mohanraj) - hardly have no major role to play and that's unfortunate.
On the whole, Padakkalam is a decent attempt by director Manu Swaraj to give the audiences a clean campus supernatural fantasy comedy but it is the poor writing that lets down the film.
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The Hindu
5 days ago
- The Hindu
Malayalam filmmaker Manu Swaraj on his directorial debut, ‘Padakkalam', a sleeper hit at the box office
Manu Swaraj was heartbroken when his directorial debut, Padakkalam, opened to not-so-positive reviews. But over three weeks into its release, he is a happy man, with the movie, a fantasy entertainer, emerging a sleeper hit at the box office. Padakkalam is the story of four close friends who are engineering students — Jithin (Sandeep Pradeep), Kannan (Saaf Boi), Ramsad (Arun Pradeep) and Nakul (Arun Ajikumar). The fantasy element kicks in when Jithin, an introvert trying to get over a break-up, discovers that one of their professors, Renjith TS (Sharafudheen) has a superpower which he uses to control his professional rival, Shaji KK (Suraj Venjaramoodu). Jithin too becomes a prey to Renjith's power. As the four friends set out to solve this, things go out of hand, leading to a laugh riot. 'They are frontbenchers,' Manu says. 'We have so many films that talk about the backbenchers and mostly about their mischief or unlawful activities. The world we created did not resonate with some of the reviewers. Thankfully word-of-mouth publicity brought in more viewers for the movie.' Manu, 30, specifies that the idea was born on February 23, 2023, while he was working out in a gym! He shared it with Nithin C Babu, his classmate, who has co-written the film. 'I prefer to call him the writer and myself the co-writer. The thought came at a time when our script pitches were getting rejected. I felt that this might be our last chance and so we decided that even if we did not get a producer, we would make the film somehow. We were that excited about the concept,' says Manu, who hails from Karamana in Thiruvananthapuram. Manu and Nithin have used some of their character traits in the film. 'For example, Jithin's mannerisms in the first half are Nithin's and the second half, mine.' Manu, an engineer, used to make short films even while in school. 'I did engineering because I wanted a degree and the subject interested me. But there was no plan to go along that path further.' The turning point was when he submitted one of his short films, Corridor, to an inter-college festival, while in his first year of engineering. 'I was not enthused about taking part in the contest. But the fact that my film will be projected on a big screen excited me. That decision changed my life,' he says. 'Basil Joseph, who had by then established his credentials with his short films and was assisting Vineeth Sreenivasan in Thira, was a judge of the competition. He appreciated the work and even suggested introducing a new award category — one for best upcoming talent and I won that honour. He also asked me to get in touch with him. When I called him, he asked if I was interested in assisting him in his debut film, Kunjiramayanam. That was an offer I couldn't resist.' Since Basil insisted that he finish his course before joining films, Manu did not work in his sophomore film, Godha. In 2019, Basil called him to assist in Minnal Murali. Even though Manu was asked to join as an assistant in the art direction team, he eventually 'worked in almost all the departments for the next two years. It was exciting, especially working with the VFX and special effects team. Those two years were like a film school. Working closely with Basil chettan helped me understand his process and approach to cinema.' It was Basil who was instrumental in greenlighting Padakkalam. 'Once the script was almost ready, I realised that it was a structure I learnt from Basil chettan and I was sure he would say yes to the project. I wanted him to play Renjith. Even though he loved the story, he couldn't do it because he had no dates. He was the one who told us that the project would need a big production house. He helped us get in touch with (producer) Vijay Subramaniam who brought in his close friend and producer, Vijay Babu. That helped us a lot because Vijay Babu came to our rescue on occasions when the shoot had almost got stalled.' Arriving at the cast Manu says Suraj was the only choice to play Shaji. 'The Malayali audience has given the license to do mad-cap comedy to a few actors and he is one of them.' There were several choices to play Renjith until Sharaf said yes. To play Jithin, they had approached 'a marketable actor', but that did not materialise. 'However, casting Sandeep for the role was the right decision. He understood the script and nuances in the first sitting itself. As for the other three boys, I chose Arun (Pradeep) after watching his YouTube videos. The character was curated for him. Saaf Boi and Arun (Ajikumar) impressed us with their rapport on and off the screen.' Discussing his approach to comedy, Manu says, 'The film worked because we did not deliberately generate laughs. It is the irony that created humour. I learnt it from Basil chettan. There is irony in the premise and we tapped into it. The biggest advantage we had were actors such as Suraj chettan and Sharaf ikka who can make comedy from thin air.' Manu notes that he is disappointed that not many makers are keen about making comedy films. 'If a comedy film flops that is a serious thing and that is why many filmmakers refrain from taking that risk. The golden era of Malayalam cinema has had some amazing comedy movies and I wish to see more such films.' That Manu is a die-hard comics fan, read DC Comics, is a given once you watch the movie. 'Nithin and I are hardcore DC fans. I am an atheist, but I always say that DC is my religion and Batman is my God! In fact, our actors had no clue about the DC characters and so we created a WhatsApp group, DC Boys, to educate them!' And the highpoint post release? Meeting Rajinikanth in Kozhikode where he was shooting for Nelson Dilipkumar's Jailer 2. 'We met him because of Suraj chettan who is acting in it. I still have not processed what all happened when we met him in his caravan. After watching the trailer, he said in the typical Rajini swag, Intha padam hit appa (This movie is a hit buddy)!' Before signing off, Manu says that he plans to make movies of all genres except 'first world, feel-good movies.' Padakkalam is running in theatres.
Pink Villa
21-05-2025
- Pink Villa
Padakkalam Kerala Box Office Day 14: Supernatural comedy drama holds well; adds Rs 50 lakh on Tuesday
Padakkalam, starring Sandeep Pradeep, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Sharafudheen, and others, is doing decent business at the box office. Debuted with Rs 35 lakh on its opening day, the supernatural comedy-drama posted an opening weekend of Rs 2 crore. It continued to lure the audience and added Rs 1.95 lakh to the tally, winding its first week at Rs 3.95 crore gross in Kerala. The movie added Rs 2.40 crore to the tally in its second weekend, followed by Rs 45 lakh on the second Monday and Rs 60 lakh on the second Tuesday. As per estimates, the movie added Rs 50 lakh to the tally on Day 14, bringing the total cume to Rs 7.90 crore gross in Kerala. It will be interesting to see how the movie fares in the coming days. Padakkalam will get a new competition from next weekend as Tovino Thomas is returning to the screens with his much-awaited movie Narivetta. Day-wise box office collection of Padakkalam is as follows: Padakkalam in cinemas Padakkalam is playing at the cinemas nearby. You can grab your tickets from the online ticket-booking websites or grab them from the counter itself. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates. Disclaimer: The box office figures are compiled from various sources and our research. The figures can be approximate, and Pinkvilla does not make any claims about the authenticity of the data. However, they are adequately indicative of the box-office performance of the films in question.
Pink Villa
20-05-2025
- Pink Villa
Prince and Family Kerala Box Office Day 13: Dileep's comedy-drama holds strong, collects Rs 55 lakh on 2nd Tuesday
Prince & Family Kerala Box Office Day 13: Malayalam movie Prince & Family, starring Dileep in the lead role, is holding well at the box office. The movie met with positive word-of-mouth among the audience, thus registering an encouraging hold at the box office. Debuting with Rs 80 lakh on its opening day, the Binto Stephen-directed film has recorded a strong run so far and has performed better than its rival releases, Sarkeet and Padakkalam. Prince & Family wrapped its first weekend at Rs 2.95 crore and first week at Rs 6.40 crore gross. The family comedy continues to gain traction and wrapped its second weekend at a strong figure of Rs 8.95 crore. And now, the movie has crossed the Rs 10 crore mark in Kerala, with Rs 55 lakh coming on Day 12. The total cume of Prince & Family now stands at Rs 10.50 crore gross at the Kerala box office. Let's see how the movie performs against Tovino Thomas' Narivetta from this weekend. Day-wise box office collection of Prince & Family is as follows: Day Gross Kerala Box Office 1 Rs 80 lakh 2 Rs 90 lakh 3 Rs 1.25 crore 4 Rs 90 lakh 5 Rs 85 lakh 6 Rs 90 lakh 7 Rs 80 lakh 8 Rs 75 lakh 9 Rs 90 lakh 10 Rs 1.40 crore 11 Rs 60 lakh 12 Rs 55 lakh (est.) Total Rs 10.50 crore Prince & Family in cinemas Prince & Family is playing in cinemas nearby. You can book your tickets from the online ticket-booking websites or grab them from the counter. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.
