Lubber Pandhu Movie Review : The year's most wholesome entertainer

Lubber Pandhu Movie Synopsis: A hard-hitting batsman and a formidable bowler in a small town are involved in a fierce battle to dominate each other. How far will this rivalry affect their personal relationships?

Lubber Pandhu Movie Review: We have a few more months to go this year, but we can comfortably say that Lubber Pandhu is going to be the year's most wholesome entertainer. On the surface, debutant director Tamizharasan Pachamuthu's film might seem like a Blue Star-meets-Parking-meets-Chennai 600028 tale, and while it does hold the best qualities of all three films, it's much more than a smart rehash.

The film begins as a regular sports drama involving a conflict between two cricket-loving men. While Poomaalai aka Gethu (Attakathi Dinesh) is a hard-hitting batsman and a local legend, Anbu (Harish Kalyan) is a formidable bowler, who is starting to make his name. When we first meet these two characters, Gethu is a married young man who is playing cricket on the sly to not earn the wrath of his wife Asodhai (Swasika), who loves her husband dearly, but is also equally frustrated by his irresponsibility. And Anbu is a school student who gets to play for Jolly Friends, the local cricket team, but isn't given an opportunity to bowl because of the team's dominant caste players.

Years later (the film uses the price of a rubber ball to give us this detail), a grey-haired Gethu continues to remain the same while Anbu runs a sports jersey shop and plays as a guest player across teams. A comment on Gethu' 's playing style that Anbu makes to his friend Kaathaadi (Balasaravanan) is overheard by the former's friend Kozhandai (Jerson) and this ignites the spark of rivalry between the two. Even as tensions continue to flare up, Anbu ends up falling in love with Durga, who, as fate would have it, happens to be Gethu's daughter! Soo, the on-field rivalry ends up as the villain for this romance!

Lubber Pandhu is a great example of how layered, detailed writing can elevate a seemingly familiar tale into something that's refreshing and exciting. From cricket craze to caste discrimination, gender discrimination, the fragility of the male ego and the Vijayakant fandom in our small towns, Tamizharasan Pachamuthu talks about everything in the film without making anything forced or preachy. He smartly lets the events and the characters put across the messages that he wants to convey, and this assurance and restraint from a first-time filmmaker is truly remarkable. And he keeps the tension intact until the last scene; even as one conflict gets resolved, he keeps introducing others that keep the stakes up. He also superbly fleshes out the relationship between the characters, not just the lead ones but even the supporting characters. Like the bond between Asodhai and her mother-in-law (Geetha Kailasam, who has become so adept at nailing such characters). Or, the arcs of Karuppaiyya (Kaali Venkat) and his daughter.

The director also deserves praise for the quiet dignity with which all the female characters are treated. In fact, this is that rare film where even the negative characters, like Venkatesh (TSK), a player in Jolly Friends, aren't villains, but flesh-and-blood people who behave the way they do because of their beliefs and prejudices.

This mature writing is complemented by the solid filmmaking. Dinesh Purushothaman's cinematography brings out the dusty browns of the grounds and the rustic setting of Gethu's home in fine fashion while Madan G's cuts sharpen the storytelling. And Sean Roldan infuses life into the proceedings with a score that's understated to elevate the emotional moments and electrifying in the cricket scenes.