In an era when realistic films are becoming a thing in Malayalam, a movie like 18am Padi is difficult to sit through. While I'm completely okay with fictionalized settings and characters (it's a movie after all), what makes a film watchable lies purely in its treatment of the screenplay. Shanker Ramakrishnan's last script (My Story) was an equally pathetic (if not worse) rendition of a love story set in Europe, with key characters being played by actors that we look up to. 18am Padi also lives up to that promise to an extent, with cameos from folks like Prithviraj, Arya (who's also co-producing), Unni Mukundan, and of course, Mammootty.
Right from Prithviraj's philosophical dialogues in the opening scenes, 18am Padi doesn't ring a bell. The rivalry depicted between two schools (one local and the other international) in the city of Thiruvananthapuram in the 90s is shoddily penned. Why do they hate each other so much? The reasons are concluded at the beginning itself - societal segregation, standards of living, and lastly (and most awkwardly), more good-looking female students in the international school.
This isn't how high-school rivalries in the 90s were. There might have been tensions running high between students of schools but all that was restricted to playgrounds, stages, fests, and classrooms. In the film, it almost seems like students can be categorized into two. The students at the International school are spoilt brats, fully aware of their privileges and do not hesitate to show off. Almost everyone there is a drug-addict and performs flips and swirls like they were born straight out of Shaolin temple.
On the other hand, the students at the Govt. school are portrayed as standing up for the group always, striving to make things better for themselves and everyone around them. They, however, are quick to come to blows with students from their 'rival school' more often than necessary. The numerous fight scenes have been stuffed in to just add to the stylistic overtones that the film so desperately tries to live up to. The women in the film have nothing to do - including Annie Teacher (played by Ahaana who gets the most screen-time), who has been carefully placed to draw more admiration towards Joy Sir.
When you look back, what should have formed the crux of the story was the bond between Joy Sir and the students. Instead, it's fleetingly sketched in a badly written stretch of scenes (and a song) that add up to nothing. Mammootty's late entry into the proceedings doesn't help a lot either. As John Palakkal, he only has to repeat mannerisms from several of his earlier flicks where he played mentor to a group. I wish Shanker had focused more on the little things - the bus rides that the students shared, the transient romances, the arts/sports fests that they were a part of, and more along those lines. What do we get instead? Choreographed fights in slow-motion. Plenty of them.
The performances by the debut actors are so-so. I wouldn't blame them since the material offered left a lot to be desired in the first place. 18am Padi would have worked just fine if it was released in the early/mid-2000s, before the resurgence of realism and intelligent storytelling in Malayalam cinema.
Verdict: Blah!
