PT Sir

PT Sir Movie Synopsis: Kanagavel, a physical education teacher, is not one to take a stand or get involved in any issues. A drastic turn of events leads him to reevaluate his stance and fight for what’s right.

PT Sir Movie Review: A male lead fights for the rights of women after seeing the sad state of those around him. PT Sir is the latest mainstream Tamil film that follows this basic template. A drawback with many of these films is that the plight of a woman is used as a tool for the hero’s character transformation and to serve his journey, without much focus being given to handling the issue at hand with sensitivity. Something awful that happens to a woman is the driving force behind the male protagonist Kanagavel’s (Hiphop Tamizha Aadhi) transformation in this film. But, to its credit, PT Sir isn’t so fixated on its protagonist that it forgets to focus on what Anikha Surendran’s character Nandini went through.

A viewer’s appreciation of PT Sir will depend on what they are seeking from it. If you are hoping to be in for a film that’s without any clutches of mainstreamness and hero-elevation moments, then PT Sir might not be your cup of tea. But the film does show a certain amount of sensitivity in how it handles the portions that deal with the harassment faced by Nandini, especially in how it delves into the change in the attitude of both her family and society towards her.

In many movies and in our society, we have seen parents being easily let off the hook after their daughter has been forced to take an extreme measure after being sexually harassed, even though they themselves shame and blame her. But PT Sir makes it a point to address the role that near and dear ones can play in making a woman feel helpless and bad about herself. With that said, this is a comedy-drama, and therefore, the intensity to which the issue can be taken is limited as the film switches between comedy and drama.

PT Sir will be a more appealing watch if we look at it from the perspective that this is a commercial entertainer that’s aimed at reaching and spreading awareness to a larger crowd rather than a nuanced take on the sexual harassment that a woman goes through.

What is unique about PT Sir in comparison to the other commercial movies that dealt with a similar storyline is the profession of protagonist. Kanagavel is a physical education teacher at a school. His romantic track with Kashmira Pardeshi, a teacher in the same school, doesn’t work, and neither does the unnecessary track of a young kid in the school competing with him to vie for her affections.

The music by Hiphop Tamizha manages to keep alive the cartoonish feel of these portions as well as the drama and tension that happen later. Also, the contrast between what’s going on in two houses—one mourning and the other celebrating a happy moment—does manage to make us feel something without the need for makers to pinpoint it.

The angle that this is all predestined goes well with the heightened nature of the movie. What also works in the film’s favour is the antagonist played by Thiagarajan, as the actor manages to be a villain whose presence and aura do make him a powerful antagonist.

The casting of an actress in her 40s playing the mother of the male lead in his 30s leaves a bad taste. It is a credit to Devadarshini’s performance that we are able to get past that and invest in the mother-son relationship between her and Adhi.