‘Padakkalam’ (2025) Movie Review - Manu Swaraj's Bland And Unstimulating Fantasy Comedy

Manu Swaraj's Padakkalam, for better and worse, plays out like a movie buff's wet dream. It mentions Vikram Kumar's 24 and Richard Donner's Superman and brings to the foreground the various versions of the Joker. The movie runs like a science fiction adventure that plays around with the body control/body swap device. Swaraj gleefully displays his nerdy admiration for comic book films by generating a casual, carefree tone. Padakkalam is easy to watch, which is probably the highest compliment one can bestow upon it. The movie moves with mechanical efficiency - it's like a well-oiled machine. It's also quite bland and unstimulating. Swaraj operates in a vacuum-sealed world whose walls might as well be adorned with posters of various superheroes and sci-fi movies. What one learns about the director after watching this film is that...he has watched movies. Padakkalam resembles something Swaraj might have concocted during a boys' night out with friends like Ramsad (Arun Pradeep), Nakul (Arun Ajikumar), Kannan (Saaf), and Jithin (Sandeep Pradeep). The material is totally hokum, but what really prevents it from exploding is the director's indifference towards his own story. Swaraj and his co-writer, Nithin C. Babu, are not just amateur dreamers; they are also amateur filmmakers. They have created this movie solely on the basis of a wild concept, without considering other dimensions of their story. Their characters are thin (they are used as puppets), and there are numerous holes in the script.

At one point in Padakkalam, Jithin continuously sleeps for 16 hours. During this period, his parents don't call him. In fact, there is no interaction between a student and a parent throughout the film. The undergraduates of Shri Kartika Thirunal College of Engineering apparently don't have either a father or a mother who checks up on them regularly. Two hours and four minutes later, I am still unsure how and where Jithin and his friends live. When and where did these friends meet for the first time? Do they all have the same professional dream? What is it? Do they want to be a filmmaker, a comic book writer, an actor, or engineer? We are told that Jithin will soon go to Germany? Is he going there to pursue a Master's degree in Engineering or to work in the field of movies or comics? Jithin and Jeevika's (Niranjana Anoop) relationship is also not sketched convincingly. She simply...exists. If Swaraj wanted to use her to produce romantic drama in the film and emotional complications in Jithin's life, he failed terribly. Padakkalam manages to hit only a single note, and Jithin is so completely occupied with the complicated plot that there is little room for his love life. On paper, the idea of putting Jithin in Shaji's (Suraj Venjaramoodu) body, not only for high jinks but also to give him a clear view of romance and life, sounds interesting. But what Jithin learns as Shaji and from Shaji's domestic issues (which are vague and generic) is not depicted on the screen (the lesson is learned offscreen). What Padakkalam offers is just a dull, lecture-y, sage-y line that Jeevika hears from Jithin. When Shaji's wife, Shobha (Pooja Mohanraj), tells Shaji (who's actually Jithin) that she's pregnant, all we get is a joke where he screams, "This is not my child!"

Swaraj is determined to keep Padakkalam a family-friendly affair. He doesn't use the body swap device for carnality. Renjith (Sharaf U Dheen), as Jithin, for the most part, is unaware of Jeevika, and when Shaji, as Renjith, hugs Shobha, the moment is converted into an insignificant joke. What's more, it's established that if, say, Jithin (as Shaji) drinks alcohol, the person who will get intoxicated is Shaji (as Renjith). Then, why does Jithin/Shaji not experience pain when Jithin/Renjith is beaten up by other students? And how is it possible that a man of average build like Jithin starts hitting everybody like a macho, muscular hero when Renjith enters his body? How can a change in personality also change someone physically? Swaraj might say that he is in no mood for logic, but due to the lack of it, his film looks like a clumsy film school project made to impress people who think like him. Meaning: His Padakkalam is an echo chamber of a movie that will appeal to those who don't take their brain to films. There is a nice Google Lens joke, and you smile when Shaji, as Renjith, realizes how he looks from behind, but the film, overall, is plagued by monotony. The mood is the same from the beginning. Padakkalam initially enters an intriguing territory: Democracy vs oligarchy. The students protest against the new HOD because he has fake certificates and is appointed by his friends and colleagues. Swaraj, though, doesn't develop this line of thinking or integrate it neatly into the larger scheme of things. He seems as shallow as Jithin and his buddies. He simply wants to turn off his brain and play with his comics.  

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times