‘Pattas’ marks the second collaboration between director Durai Senthilkumar and Dhanush, after Kodi that released in 2016. Hot on the heels of Dhanush’s runaway box office hit Asuran, Pattas too interestingly pits him in two different avatars. He plays Sakthi aka Pattas, a petty suburban thief in the first half of the film and in the second half, we see him as an expert proponent of the legendary Tamil martial art Adimurai.
The film starts off with an introduction of seemingly unconnected characters. First, there is Kanyakumari aka Kanya, played by Sneha, who is shown being imprisoned for a heinous crime against a foreigner. Then, there is Nilan (Naveen Chandra), who is a kick-boxing stalwart in Chennai and spearheads the sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in this part of the world. And finally, we meet Pattas (Dhanush) and his sidekick Puncture (KPY Sathish) who are petty thieves with a hilarious modus operandi.
Although you could guess that some of these characters could indeed be interlinked, the film builds up this reveal intelligently in a smartly written first half of the film. Watch out for Sneha’s character. I don’t want to reveal anything and spoil your viewing experience, but this could already be a contender for the best written woman character of this year (I know we are only in January). Some of the sequences here were really impressive. I especially loved this scene where Pattas and Kanya end up in the same share auto, and Pattas tries to nick her bag from her. This scene, and what it eventually leads up to shortly, beautifully blended a wide array of emotions with some breathtaking action choreography.
While the first half was a delightful bag of surprises, the film settles into an extremely predictable fare in the second half. We get a flashback. This involves the other avatar of Dhanush that we have mentioned earlier and his innocent friendship with Nilan, a man who oozes poison. From here on, you could practically second guess every other scene and it is nothing we haven’t seen before in Tamil cinema. I will however laud the effort taken to portray the martial art of Adimurai in a very convincing light, not least through Dhanush’s terrific body language.
Pattas ultimately ends up as a film of two halves. It has its moments and entertains in parts. It even breaks some interesting stereotypes. When was the last time you saw a male kick-boxer with a female coach, in any film industry? Dhanush towers over the script and carries it brilliantly, but there’s a limit to what even this extraordinary actor can make work. One of his punchlines from the film, that is quite famous now on social media can be loosely translated to this: I’ll clean you up without soap and dry you up without a towel! Unfortunately, even he can’t make a film work in its entirety without a strong script.
Overall rating: 2.5/5
