Pakkiri Movie Review

June 21, 2019

2 minutes read

Review Overview

Performances

Story & Narration

Technical Aspects & Music

A barely passable show.

Pakkiri is a barely decent watch that might be able to please the fans of the feel-good genre alone. The film could have done with a better load of emotions and a core that had more conflicts.

Starring : Dhanush, Barkhad Abdi, Gérard Jugnot ; Director : Ken Scott ; Producer : Luc Bossi, Jon Goldman, Saurabh Gupta, Aditi Anand, Gulzar Chahal ; Music : Nicolas Errèra & Amit Trivedi ; Cinematography : Vincent Mathias ; Run Time : 01:40:00 ; Release Date : 21-06-2019 ; Distribution : YNotX

When the news about Dhanush’s big ‘Hollywood’ debut came on air, excitement took up big time as his fans started celebrating the flight of an actor from the nooks of Tamil Nadu to Bollywood and finally the ultimatum. After grabbing attention all-round the globe, the film is now back to where it started for its Tamil dubbed release in Pakkiri. The end result, is a mixed bag that offers a lot of sweet moments but at the same time, doesn’t give you much to invest your time and full attention on.

For starters, Pakkiri is a tale of an ordinary man who goes round Europe in one of the most weirdly exciting ways ever, only to find himself meeting a lot of people on the way. The plot is a little too similar to many feel-good counterparts in Hollywood, and a few down in India too, and it gets peppered with too many contrived ideas that act against the flow. At surface, it may seem like a film that is light-hearted and cheerful all the way, but as time passes, one does yearn for more depth and challenges in the proceedings. Everything seems a little too easy for the protagonist as he moves from one country to another, with only a few charming moments managing to stick in.

Despite all the flaws, it is Dhanush who holds the film together with his honest performance as in the role of Raja. It may not be great shakes when compared to his films in Tamil, but he does have it in him to score well of the scenes that he has in hand. The other performances in the film are just adequate and have nothing special to provide here. Technically, the film is decent while Amit Trivedi’s music contributes well and helps the narrative move along at many places.

On the whole, Pakkiri is a barely decent watch that might be able to please the fans of the feel-good genre alone. The film could have done with a better load of emotions and a core that had more conflicts. In addition to the misfiring, the ordinary Tamil dubbing is another worry which eventually ends up as a turn off. Watch it if you have nothing else to do.