Aan Paavam Pollathathu movie review: What if Thiruvilaiyadal’s Sakthi and Sivan get thrown into modern-day, gender-biased scenario

Aan Paavam Pollathathu movie plot:

Shiva (Rio Raj) and Sakthi (Malavika Manoj) meet through their parents, spend some time and get married in what they call as ‘love-and-arranged marriage’. After the honeymoon phase and what Shiva calls as 4 ‘sambhavams’, the couple are now standing in the court hall, attending their divorce proceedings. What led them to this status, and will they reconcile?

Aan Paavam Pollathathu movie review:

‘Sakthi ilaye Sivan illai, Sivan illaye Sakthi illai’ (There is no Sivan without Sakthi, there is no Sakthi without Sivan), a dialogue from the age-old Tamil film Thiruvilaiyadal opens and ends Aan Paavam Pollathathu. The dialogue from the iconic film fairly gives both sides their due importance, and one might think that Aan Paavam Pollathathu too would follow its footsteps. After all, when has the battle of genders ever ended, and the film wants to tell that even divine beings are no exceptions to that. But Aan Paavam Pollathathu film is very faithful to its title, in that it wants you to empathise with the men folks and the only way it can do is by extremising the women in question. Either by dumbing them down or labelling them as ‘fake feminists’, as if the real world is dying to give equality to women and eagerly inviting them to be on par with men.

Also read: Aan Paavam Pollathathu movie 2025: Release date, cast, trailer, OTT platform; Everything to know about Rio Raj’s drama

Shiva narrates four ‘sambhavams’ that broke down his marriage and we are told that these instances have occurred within 400 days of their marriage. Shiva and Shakthi live alone together in a comfortable flat given by his father, and household things bought by her father. Each of these instances ignites from a very little incident (from Shakthi wearing a sleeveless blouse to Shiva’s family function, to her refusing to delete a reel that has some indecent comments). It is a good touch to portray the conflicts of the modern-day world as stemming not out of big things, but little issues.

To begin with, we are made known very less about Shakthi. As much as we know that Shiva is a mechanical engineering graduate now working as an IT professional, Shakthi, on the other hand, is shown only as a dumbed-down modern woman who is ‘intellectual and independent’. We are neither shown her as a woman earning her own money (independent?) nor shown any of her intellectual capacity. It almost feels like the film wants us to know Shakthi only through her shortcomings (like her being arrogant enough not to answer the doorbell, spending her time shooting reels, her pseudo-communism and Ambedkar-ism). It is also in one very emotional scene that we get Shiva heartfully feeling that if divorce is to happen, then Shakthi might have to face the harsh difficulties of life. The harsh reality being she having to go to work, because after all, she doesn’t know how to buy a dress for less than Rs 5,000. At the age and era when women contribute to the working of modern-day families by doubling up as both financial and domestic contributors, Aan Paavam Pollathathu feels like a superficial story. It wants us to sympathise with men, because how difficult must it be for them to live in a world where the only bare minimum that can be done is to design courts and the law to be little empathetic towards women.

Also read: Actor Rio Raj: Aan Paavam Pollathathu talks about how there is no 50-50 partnership in marriage

Aan Paavam Pollathathu has its humour bits, and that it does evoke some genuine laughing gags. In fact, it is the only saving grace apart from the decent performances by the cast. Be it the time when Shiva exposes Shakthi’s pseudo communism, or even Jenson Dhivakar, who single-handedly gets the best of one-liners, Aan Paavam Pollathathu is entertaining. There is no one single dull moment, for you are either laughing at the simple sketch comedy that works better for the story or frustrated about how it manages to question feminism. In one of the scenes in Aan Paavam Pollathathu, we see a middle-aged woman lecture about how feminism is also about serving and taking care of family if the woman wishes to, and not all about shouting slogans and wearing modern dresses. But what Aan Paavam Pollathathu forgets to talk about is that it only became an issue when Shakthi refused to cover up her sleeveless blouse, and not the other days when she wore something that was accepted by her husband.

Aan Paavam Pollathathu only builds upon this sanctity of how women should be, culminating in a monologue delivered by Narayanan (RJ Vigneshkanth), who is Shiva’s lawyer. The monologue is filled with regressive ideas painted as progressive ones, not to forget how marriage is called a sacrifice, and how it is always the women who wish for a grand and gala wedding. Aan Paavam Pollathathu has some serious work to witness on-ground to know why the law is designed to favour women, and how girls of today’s age are far more than shooting reels.

Aan Paavam Pollathathu movie verdict:

Aan Paavam Pollathathu is a fairly entertaining watch if you take gender politics out of question. But for a film like this, which wants to put itself in a politically correct position, there is no leeway for the mistakes it makes. Aan Paavam Pollathathu, which gets a good making and laughing bits on point, has thinking to do before showing where its loyalty lies. There is no correct answer to who is greater, Sakthi or Sivan. But there are plenty of arguments to make if you say Thiruvilaiyadal is a one-man show.