PadMan - A pure, laudable effort



There’s a lot to like about PadMan. It’s a tale of tender love between a husband and wife apart from the obvious issue that it tries to address. It’s a story of one man’s belief in himself and his propensity to take on society to ensure women are treated with as much dignity as men. It’s a rather tricky subject to tackle, but director R Balki succeeds in doing it beautifully on screen, using humour as a strong supporting cast.

The start itself is captivating with a melodious song showing Akshay Kumar’s marriage to Radhika Apte in a small village in Madhya Pradesh. In the days that follow, he is aghast to know that she uses a dirty cloth instead of a sanitary pad, and that women in his home have to keep distance during their periods. He buys her a branded pad from a pharmacy, but Apte cannot see herself using such an expensive one, lest other women in the family taunt her. Kumar then decides to make one himself, but fails on multiple occasions. And despite his clean intentions, he finds himself ridiculed by his family, treated as an outcast and branded as a pervert. This creates havoc in his family life where his sisters are forced to leave their home, his wife abandons him and he himself has to quit his village to pursue his larger purpose in life.

In a rented place in Indore, aided by a loan from a local, Kumar continues his effort to come up with a foolproof sanitary pad. He, however, would not know its effectiveness till someone uses it. And approaching the locals is a task fraught with danger. A chance meeting with Sonam Kapoor translates into her becoming his first client. Her positive feedback followed by her unstinted support sees him participate in a competition organised by the IIT. He bags a President’s award that earns him the lost respect from his village folks as well as those in Indore. It’s only when they realise that he has been making sanitary pads that they revolt against him again. Kumar, however, refuses to give up. Soon his low-cost innovation takes him to the United Nations (UN) and people see logic in his argument. It helps that he provides employment to women and gives them the self-respect they deserve. He eventually returns to his village as a hero and all is well with the family too.

 PadMan is an enjoyable watch from start to end because of the way the story is narrated. It does slow down a bit in parts, especially in the second half, but some top performances come to the rescue. Kumar is decent and comes across as a believable Pad Man, especially during his lecture at the UN event. One must credit him for reinventing himself as an actor, playing characters his age on screen and choosing the kind of movies that he has been doing of late. Apte, as a rustic village belle, is the heart and soul of the film. She is worth gold in every scene that she features in. Seldom has an actor performed so many emotions so convincingly and come up with a brilliant performance as she has. It’s bound to be remembered as one of the best of the year. She lets her eyes and body language talk on most occasions. Kapoor, thankfully, does not have much to do. In fact, the forced Bollywoodisation involving her and the romantic angle stand out like a sore thumb. For a film that has everything going for it, these were unnecessary.

But credit to the makers for coming up with a film like PadMan and more importantly conveying a social message in an effective way. You end up smiling at most times, even when you walk out of the theatre. And that is the ultimate rating for a movie.

- Kunal Purandare 

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