'Paathshala' Review: This Is One Serious Trip

Movie: Paathshala
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Moonwater Pictures
Cast: Nandu, Shashank, Sirisha, Anu Priya, Ali and Others
Written by: Mahi V. Raghav
Music: Rahul Raj
Cinematography: Sudheer Surendran
Editor: Shravan
Producers: Rakesh Mahankali, Pavan Kumar Reddy
Direction: Mahi V. Raghav
Release Date: October 10, 2014

The posters of the film looked interesting and the teasers looked like it was all about college friends coming of age after taking off on a holiday. Paathasala did intrigue a lot of people and let’s see how it has shaped up:

Story:
Five friends (Nandu, Anupriya, Hamood, Sai and Sirisha) who have just completed their engineering are at crossroads about their career choices. Also, they realize that the moment has come to leave each other and move into the big, bad world. So, they
decide to take one final road trip to each other’s house. En route, they discover a lot of things they did not know about each other. They also realize what they want to do with their lives. In short, the film is about how the road trip becomes a Paathasala of sorts and prepares them for the big journey called life.

Artistes’ Performances:
Shashank plays an important role in the film and he pulls off his act well.

Of the five characters, Nandu’s character is rather entertaining and he acts with ease.

Hamood and Sai are okay while Anupriya and Sirisha fail to make an impression. In fact, barring Nandu, none of the cast who play his friends leaves a lasting impression on you. Since the complete film revolves around them, the director should have taken care to pick his cast carefully.

Technical Excellence:
While the cast is weak, the technical team puts in a strong performance. The crew has chosen good locations and the cinematography is quite appealing visually. Since a road film needs good visuals, Pathasala scores good marks on that front.

Background score by Rahul Raj is really good and it has to be acknowledged that director Mahi V Raghav has good taste.

Watch Paathshala Movie Public Talk

In fact, it is quite rare to see such technical excellence in small films. The film is a clear example that the director has good understanding of his craft.

Highlights:

    Cinematography
    Locations
    Background score

Drawbacks:

    The entire lead cast barring Nandu
    Slow pace

Analysis:
If one were to explain Pathasala in one sentence, then it would be – it’s a mix between Happy Days and Gamyam.

After Happy Days, many film-makers attempted to make films on similar topics. All films of such genre try to tackle the most basic questions about life, future, goals, dreams and ambitions of their principal characters. And Pathasala is no different.

But while such films are also high on entertainment element, Pathasala goes overboard on emotions at the cost of entertainment.

The first half starts off with romance and sweet nothings between friends and makes for interesting viewing. But by the film moves to second half, it starts dealing with the various struggles of each of the characters.

Only Nandu and Anupriya’s tracks move on a lighter vein. The rest of the characters have heavy emotional scenes which makes

the viewing a little tedious after a while.

Though films like Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobara and Gamyam also tackle serious issues, the reason why they clicked at the box office was because of the entertainment element. In Pathasala, you crave for some fun moments.

Also, like mentioned earlier, the pace is rather slow and this compounds the problem for the viewers.

The director could have cut short the ‘realisation’ bits. However, there are some good scenes which keep you interested in the overall plot.

Scenes like the kid’s competition scene, Shashank expressing his love to his lover have been handled well. Barring a few fun moments between friends and such scenes, the film fails to entertain the audience.

While one has to accept that the film is a good attempt, watching such serious films takes a huge effort.

Bottomline: Good lesson, but the journey’s slow