Pota Potti - also ran!

Pota Potti is a film based on Cricket set in rural background. The film stars Sadagoppan Ramesh, the yesteryear Indian Cricketer as the hero of the film.

What is the story?

There is no great story to tell in this film. In a village, there is a wealthy landlord with a daughter ready to get married. As expected, there are two "Murai-Mapillais" vying for the hand of the girl. Of the two, Kolaivannan, is a local ruffian and the other one, Kodaivannan, is very innocent. Both of them go and ask her in marriage and to break the deadlock the girl says that they should play a cricket match and whoever wins the match would get her hand! Highly imaginative and logical. But who wants logic in a movie which is branded as a comedy! So lets forget about logic and start following what happens next.

So these two village guys try to form a cricket team and thus a space is created for Sadagoppan Ramesh, as the Coach of Kodaivannan's team. So, if you are guessing who is going to win the match and her hand, yes, you are right, its Kodaivannan's. Kodaivannan's team ultimately wins the match after a nerve-wrecking 15-20 minutes of village cricket on the screen. As expected, a love develops between the heroine and the cricket coach and the winner of the cricket match finally unites them in the village panchayat.

Actors and the characters:

The build-up to the climax match forms best part of the film, if there is any. Particularly, the person who plays the character of right-hand man of Kodaivannan, Avatar Ganesh, makes you laugh with witty lines and excellent acting. Avatar Ganesh, has excellent body language and spontaneity in acting and I am pretty sure he is going to be popular very soon. R.Sivam, who plays the Kodaivannan character also acquits himself very well. Watch out for these two guys!
On the other hand, there are few characters which have been completely wasted like Umar's Kolaivannan and his Cricket Coach, played by Mayilswamy. The dialogues of Mayilswamy looks very amateurish and I was squirming in my seat watching him. The Director, Yuvraj, seems to have spent all his attention on developing the Kolaivannan and Avataram's character and all others including Sadagoppan Ramesh's looks like avoidable additions.

Sadagoppan Ramesh fits the bill as a harassed cricket coach by a bunch of villagers but at many places he obviously looks unsure of his acting skills. I felt he was very conscious of the camera, particular in close up shots, which he could have very well avoided. The heroine, Harini, is one redeeming feature of this movie. She is good-looking and emotes reasonably well. From the looks, I guess she is a Malayalee, so she is bound to do well in Tamil Cinema as all her predecessors have done!!

There is nothing write home about the music but as in every other Tamil movie, the camera work is good.

Verdict:

We have seen many a village movie in the recent past with strong storyline and acting but this one has no pretensions of either of them. Director should have spent some time trying to sharpen the story rather than making an appearance on the screen, dancing with the second-grade Russian models!! Save for R.Sivam and Avatar Ganesh, you couldn't even think of sitting through for the 2 hours.

Pota Potti - also ran!