Ponman Review: A Meaningless Gold Saga

RATING - ⭐ ⭐ 2/5*

Ponman Review Movie Review:

Ponman, directed by Jothish Shankar, starts off on an interesting note and promises to be a good dark comedy. However, the conclusion and the recovery process are very tedious. It revolves around one person at the center who would go to any extent to get what he has promised; the other characters are played on the back foot.

Ponman Story:

The story focuses on a gold sales agent who gives a 25-sovereign piece to a bride in exchange for cash and gifts. However, in this one bride's case, things aren’t that easy. The groom is a barbaric monster, and it's not easy to get gold from someone like him. Initially scared, the agent, our protagonist, dares to step beyond his limits and goes to any extent to retrieve the gold.

The screenplay here is engaging, as the plotline isn't boring. Things keep progressing with new developments every 15 minutes. However, characterization and presentation faltered in the second half. The first half is still quite interesting because the characters have just begun to give us an idea about themselves. But by the climax, they no longer reflect that. The agent is literally blackmailing the groom, who suddenly appears helpless. The love story between the agent and the groom is totally out of place, and what a big mess it becomes.

Basil Joseph is fun to watch here, but he comes off as overly macho; something just doesn’t suit his body structure and attitude. Lijomol Jose is a fine actress, and she excels here. Sajin Gopu and Anand Manmadhan have done decently in their roles, whereas Deepak Parambol, Sandhya Rajendran, and Rajesh Sharma were suitable in their parts.

Ponman Movie Review:

On the positive side, the dark comedy is a well-attempted, if not entirely successful, endeavor. The cinematography and editing are crisp. The music could have been better, and the locations are fine. Jothish Shankar's tale of a certain kind of "Gold Hunt" is interesting but becomes meaningless by the time we reach the destination. I don't understand why gold became such a significant issue, and how all those characters suddenly started to behave according to their convenience when so many other solutions existed. That was indeed messy, and why? We don’t know. Ponman literally cons you after plenty of luring in the beginning.