By – *Khalid Khan*
The movie is based on a true story of Mr. Arunachalam Muruganantham a Social activist of Tamil Nadu – The Real Padman.
Based in early 2000’s, Padman starts with Lakshmikant (Akshay Kumar) marrying Gayatri (Radhika Apte). It is basically a story of a man’s concern, love and protectiveness towards his wife. But his mistake is that he tries to address a subject which is considered as taboo still in many places of our country. A subject which is considered as impure by many superstitious and illiterate people. How he goes on to try and make the period of his wife’s menstrual cycle safe and hygienic by providing her a basic right to have a low cost sanitary pad is the rest of the story. The process of the making pad is not at all an easy one. He has to sacrifice his wife, mother, sisters and infact even gets banished from his own village for the same. His journey is filled with lot of humour, emotions, obstacles and drama which keeps the audience engaging and intact.
Akshay Kumar fuses life into the character of Lakshmikant with his portrayal. He has done one of his best acts till date. Watch out for him when he delivers a speech at United Nations. Radhika Apte is endearing and does an excellent work as a typical rural Indian wife. The chemistry between the lead pair is real and sparkling. Sonam Kapoor lends a great support in limited opportunity as Pari Walia who helps Lakshmikant to take his project of low cost pads forward. Rest of the supporting cast also does a good job. The Cinematography by PC Sreeman is excellent and ditto for the editing work by Chandan Arora who keeps the movie short and crisp. The length of 2.15 hours is perfect for this movie. The dialogues and one liners in the movie are too good. The movie on the whole is a brave and gutsy attempt by team to address a subject which is not openly discussed even in metro cities of our country but movie sometimes gets over preachy. The cinematic liberties have been taken and that decreases the realistic value of the story which is much needed in this type of movies. Also the love angle between Akshay and Sonam looks forced, unreal and unwanted. On the whole Padman is a nice watch with Akshay yet again in terrific form.
Rating – 3.5*
