Very rarely we come across realistic portrayals in Tamil cinema. Some filmmakers do deal with various shades of life but more often than not they indulge in diluting the reality in their pursuit to ensure commercial success. Some directors, however, achieved the rare combination of undiluted reality meeting with commercial success. Debutant director Vettrimaran's `Polladhavan' has all potential to become one such attempt.
The movie opens with a gruesome fight involving Dhanush. The movie revolves around a clash between a person belonging to mafia and an innocent lower middle class boy. The narrative moves on in a non linier manner with the two narrating the story from their respective angles. No, please don't get it wrong. It is not Akira Kurosawa's Roshoman like narrative where in you get different perceptions on a single event. In `Polladhavan', the narration is shared by two characters.
Prabhu (Dhanush) who has just now brutally attacked three thugs with a sword comes out of the building and rests his wounded body on his beloved bike. He is now heading towards meeting his praise catch that is Ravi (Danial Balaji), the younger brother of all powerful mafia leader of North Chennai Selvam (Kishor Kumar). He recalls, for a moment, what that bike has brought to him before moving ahead for his hunt.
The flash back shows the happy-go-lucky boy longing for a Pulsar bike. It goes to show the life in a North Chennai street where life is quite difference from that of South Chennai. The boys are playing carom board on the street. Prabhu is sharing the pain of his failure to get what he loves most - a bike and a girl.
The narration shows the status of Prabhu's family. The father is the breadwinner of the lower middle class family and the boy, a jobless graduate, is roaming around without responsibility. When caught red-handed for stealing pittance from his father for booze with his friends, Dhanush questions his father's responsibility towards his upbringing.
The father feels humiliated and reacts sharply by arranging 70,000 rupees through his hard earned savings. He gives the money to his son and asks him to do something on his own.
The boy immediately gets one of wishes fulfilled. He gets a bike. His family is stunned. But Prabhu is determined to get a job, and fortunately he gets one with the help of his bike. He joins as a loan officer in a bank.
His other passion - to woo a girl (Divya Spandana) he meets in the bus stand for more than two years - too gets fulfilled. Prabhu is the happiest person on the earth. He has got a bike, got a girlfriend, and a decent job.
Everything gets terribly disturbed when everything seems to be well. There is another world beneath the surface. There is a mafia gang that deals with drug trafficking and various other anti social activities. Selvam is the leader of the all powerful gang.
The gang has its own complications. The younger brother Ravi of the leader is not happy with the way he is treated. He is full of jealous and anger on a gangster named `Out' (Bhavan), who is the trusted lieutenant of Selvam. The leader is not supporting his brother doubting his talent. Ravi's grudge against his brother and out grows stronger day by day.
Prabhu has a tryst with underworld when his bike gets stolen in a spot where a brutal murder takes place. Dhanush is shattered. He wants his bike back at any cost. Unfortunately, he gets to lock horns with the underworld criminals in his pursuit to find his bike. He gets into dangerous zone but his blind passion towards his bike pushes him forward. This put his and his family's life in danger. His love is in danger. The inner conflict within the underworld makes his condition worse. He is in for trouble. Big trouble indeed.
