Rajkiran, the greatest kabaddi player to be celebrated with a statue while alive, lives with a joint family of sons, daughter, grandsons and granddaughters. His second wife’s grandson Atharva and his mother Radhika live alone. Rajkiran and his family ostracize the grandson Atharvao due to Radhika’s enmity, Atharvao is trying to somehow join the grandfather’s family.
Meanwhile, Rajkiran, who was celebrated by the town, accuses the family of betraying the town and bans anyone in his family from playing kabaddi for the town. Atharva sets out to take the blame on his grandfather’s family and challenges the town.What is that challenge? Did grandfather join the family? Won the challenge? Isn’t it? It is ‘Battathu Aarasan’ that says it along with the spirited game of Kabaddi along with the family sentiment.
Playing a kabaddi player, Atharva fits the role of a sportsman perfectly. He who runs like a jallikattu bull on the kabaddi field, has shown convincing action even if he beat ten people single-handedly in the fight scenes. He who has acted moderately in romantic scenes has acted to impress everyone in sentimental scenes.
Rajkiran, who is playing the role of a kabaddi player named Pottari, is the protagonist’s grandfather, but he plays the role of three different types of bad guys. Can a 70 year old play kabaddi? Rajkiran breaks down the question through kabaddi field scenes.
Newcomer Ashika Ranganath, who plays the heroine, is the stylish face of the family. Played as a kabaddi player, she shines in love scenes and in kabaddi matches with great performances.
Jayaprakash, who plays the elder son of Rajkiran, has done flawlessly in the scenes where he expresses his anger towards Atharva and eventually joins him.
Durai Sudhakar, who plays the younger son of Rajkiran, has lived as a character because he is from Tanjore district. At some places he is given important lines in such a way that he overtakes even the senior actors. He uses it properly and gets a standing ovation for his performance. Especially the scene in the panchayat scene where he does not give up his right to his family is a testimony to the fact that Durai Sudhakar will become a great actor in Tamil cinema.
Singham Puli uses the few available spots to make us laugh, even though he crawls not as a comedian but as a family man. Raj Ayyappan, who plays another grandson of Rajkiran, has performed admirably in both acting and kabaddi.
Radhika, Chatru, Ravi Kale, Bala Saravanan, RK Suresh have many stars in the film, but all of them travel with the story, even if they appear in less scenes.
Loganathan Srinivasan’s cinematography travels along with the story. Although he is not new to showing sports matches in a lively manner, he has shown a team of three generations playing kabaddi, grandfather, son and grandson, in a very elegant way and has shot scenes that take us on a journey through Thanjavur district.
Music by composer Gibran is an added strength to the film. The songs are repetitive and humming. The background music keeps the film moving fast and briskly.
Although the story is centered around the game of Kabaddi, director Charkunam, who has written the screenplay with a family sentiment, has given it as a complete entertainer.
Although telling such a story with so many stars is the biggest challenge, the director who has mastered that challenge has given everything in measure like kindness, love, action, comedy and family sentiment.
Although there are some hiccups in the script due to the family sentiment set around the spirited game of Kabaddi, The kabaddi game and related information corrects them and keeps the film moving without being boring. At the end, the kabaddi match between Rajkiran’s family and the town keeps us on the edge of our seats.
On the whole, ‘Pattathu Arasan’ has naturally told the real life of the villagers as well as their sporting life.
