Take a couple of
minutes before you read the review or at least watch the movie to read the
story of Arunachalam Muruganatham who is the real Pad Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachalam_Muruganantham).
Heroes like these are basic fodder for film makers like R Balki who usually
treads the off beat path and this time he takes up an issue that most of us city
slickers will be unfamiliar with.
The penetration
of Sanitary Pads in India is lower than 20% - despite the efforts of Pad
Man. Arunachalam has been at it for over
a decade now and if numbers from the movie are to be believed then it was as
low as 10% when our hero started his work.
A big contribution to the growth has to be credited to Arunachalam, who
now has a network spread across 23 out of the 29 states in India. WOW!!!
Laxmikant
Chauhan (Akshay Kumar) is a genuinely nice person who lives somewhere in Madhya
Pradesh (Central India). He gets married
to Gayatri (Radhika Apte) and makes for a perfect husband. Balki has established the empathetic character
of The Pad Man through several quick shots like Laxmi building a back seat on
his cycle for his wife amongst others.
Good work there I must say.
Laxmi soon realizes
the when Gayatri has her periods, she is forced to live outside the house and
more importantly uses a cloth to soak up the bleeding – probably the most unhygienic
way possible. More importantly, the same
cloth is washed and used again. Unable
to accept this, he first buys very expensive sanitary pads (₹55 a pack) and
when that doesn’t go down well, he embarks on a project to make cheaper pads
for his wife.
But as always is
the case in India, anyone who tries to do some good will be pulled down by the
other millions – the perfect example of Crab Syndrome. Starting with the villagers and eventually
moving onto his family, one by one, Laxmi is ostracized. But he doesn’t give up and keeps at it. Eventually to find success and acceptance.
Some great
dialogues – as always with Balki. When
Pari (Sonam Kapoor) congratulates Laxmi on making such a cheap product he responds
by saying, “सस्ता ? कई रातों की नींद, एक बीवी, एक माँ, एक गांव और ९० हज़ार का कर्ज़ा”
(cheap alright.
Just cost me several nights of sleep, a wife, a mother, a village and
about ₹90000 in debt). Delivered genuinely
and from the heart from Akshay. There are
a few other good ones but I will leave it to you to hear them when you watch
the movie.
Stand out
performance from Radhika Apte and Akshay Kumar.
Some typical Amit Trivedi music provides the right garnish over the 140
minutes. The movie could have been
tighter for certain. Sonam Kapoor is
tolerable which is more than one can say for her at most times – but I definitely
would not have made her pretend to be a great tabla player. Too many coincidences again leave you with a
feeling of what could have been.
The one thing that kept nagging me through the movie and even before - and it has nothing to do with me being a South Indian - is that the story is about someone from Tamil Nadu. Balki could have made the movie in Tamil with a Tamil Cast and maybe dubbed it in Hindi to make it work. Would have been brave and worth commending. I get the rationale of pandering to the masses but it would have made for so much better watching if they had stuck to the regional nuances.
The one thing that kept nagging me through the movie and even before - and it has nothing to do with me being a South Indian - is that the story is about someone from Tamil Nadu. Balki could have made the movie in Tamil with a Tamil Cast and maybe dubbed it in Hindi to make it work. Would have been brave and worth commending. I get the rationale of pandering to the masses but it would have made for so much better watching if they had stuck to the regional nuances.
But the negatives
kept aside, Pad Man is a good watch.
Take your kids along because they need to know. One can only hope that the movie inspires many
others to do some pathbreaking work.
More importantly, it would make the remaining 400 million women of age
to take up more hygienic options.
Because remember – “Woman Strong, Mother Strong, Sister Strong – Then Country
Strong”. 7 on 10. Watch it!!!
Watch the actual
trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKkyqBj_rQE
