The title of the film is Lubber Pandhu, which means Rubber Ball in English. The film opens with a cricket match scene in a village in Tamil Nadu. Just in the initial 30 minutes, there are enough references to IPL and CSK. About half the film’s run time features some cricket match or other. A graffiti of a bare-chested Saurav Ganguly waving off his shirt almost comes as a leitmotif of the film throughout. Based on all this, it is natural for us to conclude that Lubber Pandhu is another Cricket-based drama in the likes of Lagaan, Chennai 600028 etc. But in reality, it is very much a love story between a boy and a girl like many other Indian films.
In such love stories, the centre point is some conflict between the boy and the girl which at the end either gets resolved, ending on a happy note or doesn’t get resolved, ending tragically. We have seen a variety of conflicts in love stories in the past from class divide to religion to caste divide to ego tussle and so on. In Lubber Pandhu, this conflict arises initially due to competition on the cricket field that too between the boy and his father-in-law to be. This premise is what makes the film interesting at the outset.
As we see in many Malayalam films, Lubber Pandhu has a “Slice of Life” look and feel to it. In India, Cricket is like a religion with phenomenal penetration and reach. In the last few years, there has been an explosive growth of the game not just in metros but in small towns and villages of India. Even in local tournaments, the competition among the local teams is fierce and intense as if the game is about life and death. The film aptly captures these aspects with a lot of minute detailing.
In every team, there is likely to be an “X-factor” player who apart from being extremely talented and gifted, also comes with an attitude and has his/her own fan following. My generation would compare such characters with Vivian Richards of West Indies and the latter generation with our own Sehwag, for example. Director Tamizharasan Pachamuthu who has also written the film, models the girl’s dad after such a character and calls him “Gethu” which means swag in Tamil. Though he is this big hero on the cricket field, at home, he is a normal submissive husband who has to lie to his wife every time to play a cricket match, which he is passionate about. Not just this characterisation, but the etching of other characters like that of his wife, his daughter (the girl), and the key hangers-on of the two male leads are all very real and relatable.
The course, the story would take is almost predictable. The conflict on the domestic front shadows the conflict on the cricket field and as we expect, there is a convergence towards the end. A very interesting frame in the interval block is almost an indicator of what to expect at the end. Yet, the happenings keep us engaged throughout, thanks to the very organic performances of the cast and the breezy pace of the film. Towards the very end, the Director in an attempt not to follow the beaten path, brings in a convoluted end which I thought looked artificial in an otherwise believable film.
Harish Kalyan whom we saw earlier in the film Parking in a totally different setting, is the younger male lead and is good. The other male lead – Gethu has a stiff demeanour throughout and despite the director’s urge to “maasify” the character, actor Dinesh fell short for the role, in my opinion. For such a “Gethu” character, his dialogue delivery was faint. The female leads do a terrific job.
Sean Roldan with his enjoyable background score demonstrates that he is the next composer to watch out for. Ilaiyaraaja comes almost as another character in the film through many of his songs that are played in between deliveries in matches to suit the situation. The playing of “Vaanatha pola…’ song from Chinna Gounder in one such situation when Gethu gets out, brings a smile. Much like Raja, Captain (Vijayakanth) too is omnipresent in the film.
Boy meets girl. They like each other and want to marry. But the boy and the girl’s dad are on opposite Cricket teams. The boy punctures the ego of the girl’s dad every time they meet on the Cricket field. This conflict comes as a hindrance for the boy and girl to come together. Towards the end, the two rival men come together for the sake of the girl and their common team. Kudos to the producer who agreed to bankroll the film based on such a seemingly crazy storyline. It is the treatment of the storyline and the screenplay that elevates such a storyline into an interesting film. More Kudos to the director Pachamuthu for translating this storyline into an interesting film on the big screen, which if not done deftly would have misfired badly.
Lubber Pandhu is a feel-good and light-hearted film that is a good watch. It is now streaming on Hotstar.
AnandKumarRSonFilms 
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