Akshay Kumar brings believability to his character of the small town guy, a school dropout, and though his dialogue delivery in the initial sequences look quite odd, he delivers a neat and subtle performance with his trademark humour underlying, besides raw portrayal of pain and angst of a common man marching towards a greater cause.
Radhika Apte shares a lovely chemistry with Akshay and they look too good on screen, and Radhika is just amazing as the wife who fails to understand the cause her husband has taken up and showers hate and misunderstanding than love, and is impressive. Sonam Kapoor, though she delivers a fine performance is a bit out of place as her characterization looks forced and is a definite commercial value-add. The rest of the artists are adequate.
Amit Trivedi breathes soul into Padman, as his BGM is the life of movie that travels towards a larger cause rather than getting typically commercial, and of his songs, the title song and Aaj Se Teri are appealing. Cinematography by PC Sreeram is top notch and captures the rustic locales and the raw lifestyle and plight of people of Laxmikanth's milieu perfectly.
Chandan Arora's taut editing makes sure Padman never bores you in its entirety. Despite receiving critical acclaim, Balki had failed in his last two flicks, Ki and Ka and Shamitabh, and when it was announced that he's set to join hands with commercial king Akshay Kumar, it was expected to be the derailing of Balki from his unconventional track, but the duo surprised by revealing that the film is based on the inspirational personality, Arunachalam Muruganandham, the man behind low-cost sanitary pad making machines.
Though Balki takes his cinematic liberties, combining facts with fiction, at no point does he indulge in an excessive melodrama of preachy mode ( since this one's an important social issue), and laces the screenplay with subtle humor throughout, making Padman an entertaining and educating venture. Despite his addition of Sonam Kapoor looks forced, he has extracted top class Performances from Akki and Radhika Apte, and especially with Akshay rocking with his stunning address at the finale, and Radhika's outburst on Laxmikanth's acts being mocked, Being highlights.
Akshay Kumar must be lauded for his choice of scripts in the recent years, filled with patriotism and social message, like special 26, Baby, Airlift, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, to name a few, and now joining the list is Padman, another feather in his hat. Despite having its own share of flaws and certain level of predictability, Padman's strength lies in its simplicity and positivity it oozes throughout, and with inspired performances, engaging screenplay and top class technical team, Padman is your weekend's dose of inspiration to begin a new day, a new week, and a new life, chucking old school ways and traditions, and inspired to innovate. Go catch this Padded superhero on screens!
