The first half hour of Prasanna Vadanam may deceive you slightly if you walk in expecting a thriller. Even though the film begins with a dying Surya (Suhas) being wheeled into an ICU, what follows is unexpectedly laidback. We see that the cheerful, good-natured Surya has healed himself and found a way to live normally without any emotional baggage.
But just as we make peace with this easygoing narrative and Surya looks at people around him leading their lives on a rainy night with untroubled ordinariness, director Arjun YK pulls the rug from under us he jolts us back into awareness of what his story wants to be. Surya sees something terrible happening, decides to act. The script throws its cards down in one swift motion, plunging us into the thick of things right away. From here on out, Prasanna Vadanam keeps up narrative tension by throwing one twist after another at us so fast that we barely get time to recover between them.
I can’t talk about Prasanna Vadanam without giving away spoilers but suffice it to say that the film finds its groove around the interval mark when we come face to face with who the real antagonist is. Writer-director Arjun YK knows that any taut, thrilling narrative needs evil forces as much as it does goodness he creates an exciting villain here who’s both repulsive and riveting. The film keeps surprising us with twists and turns; not only does the antagonist stay one step ahead of our hero but also of us viewers I’d call that a win for sure. It wouldn’t be wrong to call Prasanna Vadanam plot-driven but much credit must go to how tense it makes us by keeping the antagonist’s actions unpredictable throughout. We’re scared for Surya and hope he wins against this guy every step of the way.
What makes it more compelling is that we also get to know the backstory and motivations of this villain, so they feel more human without losing any of the menace they should have. Despite a few lapses in logic here or there, the story keeps us hooked because there’s always this fascinating cat and mouse game happening between good and evil.
Also, Prasanna Vadanam takes on a lighter tonality in its second half while remaining a tight thriller. The lines between comedy and tragedy blur at times in this tale about an average person caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and Arjun YK allows for some absurd humour too. In fact, it’s during these later portions that we find ourselves being most gripped by the hero’s vulnerabilities like when he has to fight off two psychopaths inside a public toilet. The director exploits the dynamics of tight physical space brilliantly here; we watch as Surya tries desperately to break away from his captors’ clutches.
Simultaneously, Prasanna Vadanam does not stay away from moral ambiguity or the messier parts of Surya’s predicament either. For example, at one point he threatens a villain with killing his infant child unless he helps him out. We know that eventually he won’t do it but are still taken aback for a second, left wondering if those months have made him capable of such things. In the final act Arjun YK brilliantly uses the romance track which was completely perfunctory till now without coming across as gimmicky. These portions are an emotional roller-coaster because we feel sorry for Surya while knowing very well that something macabre might happen any moment and this again ties back to it being a tragicomic lead.
Suhas’ performance is what makes Prasanna Vadanam so good. Often times actors like him bring life into insignificant scenes and give characters depth that might otherwise just come off as hero figures when played by stars with less talent. He never makes Surya invincible; Suhas always reminds us of his ordinariness even in small actions such as when his shoulder flinches after pushing open locked doors or desperate ones like picking up half smoked cigarettes from pavements after running around all day hiding from police etcetera. These moments feel real but more importantly they serve as a reminder that this story is about people like you and I who could find themselves at their lowest any given day.
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