Coming of age and coming to terms

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: A believable coming-of-age film needs a perfect cast. You cannot have even 20 somethings playing teenagers. But when you manage to bring in actors who not only look the part but can also act, you are all set for a good outing.

Hariprasad Jayanna, in his debut as director, gives this good cast a simple but poignant story loaded with oodles of humour and anecdotal incidents. The film caters to nostalgia and never fails to stick to this core idea. Mostly funny and with a dash of sentiment thrown in, Padavipoorva is a good teenage drama on friendship and college life.

The film is set in the 1990s and chronicles the friendship among a group of pre-university students. Nithya (Anjali), a newcomer joins this gang and Naveen (Pruthvi) falls for her. The perfect grouping is soon marred by misunderstandings, egos and evil scheming which threaten to break it up.

Naveen wants to desperately regroup his friends and tries every trick he can think of. But each of his attempts leads to further widening of the gap between the friends. How the friends reconcile forms the rest of the story. The film is filled with incidents that are easily recognisable by teenagers.

Without being vulgar, the director manages to present a realistic picture of the behaviour, shenanigans and pranks youngsters in a college indulge in. The film is also a debut for some of the actors. Pruthvi in the lead role plays his part to perfection. Yasha Shivakumar is another good find.

Though, this was her debut film, Monsoon Raaga was released first. Anjali as Nithya takes to acting like fish to water. It is a commendable effort by the director to get not only the casting right but extracting the best in their performances. Even seasoned actors in the supporting cast have something special to do.

Sharath Lohitashava has a characterdriven role after a while and nails it. Most of the things fall in the right place for the film. There are no boring moments, and the template for a campus story is near perfect. Being a Yograj Bhat production it was expected that he would come up with some memorable lyrics.

The music and songs are not bad, but nowhere near the sensation, Bhat’s songs used to create. Pada - vipoorva is a nostalgic journey which does not try to be preachy (a good thing), sticks to the basics (another good thing), and delivers what it promises; a cute little teenage coming-of-age drama. Is it worth a visit to theaters? Of course, it is.

Students and youngsters may find it more appealing than anyone else. Despite this, it also holds appeal for the family audience.

Film: Padavipoorava

Director: Hariprasad Jayanna

Cast: Pruthvi Shamanur, Anjali Anish, Yasha Shivakumar, Sharath Lohitashwa

Duration: 131 minutes

Certificate: UA