Petta Rap Movie Review: Prabhu Deva is miscast in this dreary musical drama

There are plenty of aspects to like in a musical action drama. Songs that linger in your mind long after the credits roll, dance sequences that audiences would recreate for several months and a heartwarming story that that tugs at your heart. Even if one of these aspects fails, the others will make sure you are entertained. Unfortunately, Prabhu Deva’s Petta Rap has none of these qualities. Every scene is a reminder of how just an ambitious story cannot make up for a film that fails to do justice to its colourful genre.

Cast: Prabhu Deva, Vedhika, Bagavathi Perumal, Vivek Prasanna, Ramesh Thilak, Mime Gopi, and Riyaz Khan

Director: SJ Sinu

The story of Petta Rap is as flimsy as it can get. Balasubramanian aka Bala (Prabhu Deva), is branded as ‘junior Prabhu Deva’ in school but grows up to become a struggling actor. On the verge of giving up, he faces unexpected challenges. The question of whether he finds a renewed vigour for life forms the rest of the story. The short answer is yes and no.

The major drawback for Petta Rap is Prabhu Deva himself. He is miscast as an actor who drags his feet from audition to audition to be cast in a film. Even as he acts with all his might, we only get to witness the actor and not Bala himself who has an extremely endearing love story involving slam books and old-school benches. Somewhere between his pursuit of becoming an actor and his love for punching goons, we fail to connect with his character and ambitions.

When he is not breaking into dance and song, Balasubramanian is busy giving out sermons to people. At one point, he shows one glass tumbler and a steel one in front of the frame and declares, “Aniyayam glass mari, paaka nalla irukum aana udanjurum, but steel break aagadhu aana athoda satham ketute irukum.” He is either extremely confident or loathes his existence. There is no in-between. However, he continues to dump one message after another, even if it has no relation to the scene playing on screen. Take for instance his conversation with Veeramani (Riyaz Khan). He tells him, “Madhu, madham rendume danger (Both alcohol and religion are danger)”, but it has nothing to do with the scene it comes in.

Vedhika puts on an impressive performance as Jeni, a successful singer, and an entertainer, but the script hardly does any justice to her role. She is reduced to just another performer who is thrown insults at for doing her job. The scenes involving villains Veeramani (Riyaz Khan), King Kumar (Mime Gopi), and their long-standing rivalry with Michael (Kalabhavan Shajon) are terribly written and merely act as characters who incite violence with little to no value to their own goals. The film tries to bank on the nostalgia for the ‘Pettai Rap’ song from Kadhalan. It fails to evoke the intended emotion but remains a harmless addition.

In a musical drama, it is surprising to not have a single memorable song. On top of that, the lyrics that go along with it are cacophonic and nauseating. In the song ‘Lika Lika’, there are lines that say, ‘Inga poosu, anga poosu’. In another song ‘Vechu Seyyuthe’, the lyrics say, ‘Trouser kizhinju pochu danguvaar arundhu pochu’. And just when you think that Tamil cinema has moved away from using voyeuristic camera angles, we get Petta Rap which has the camera focussed on the female actors’ hips and other body parts.

Just like how Bala crashes into a random wedding after drinking like a fish, Petta Rap too takes illogical detours that bring no value to the story. Maybe, the makers had already hinted at the same with the tagline, ‘Paatu, Adi, Aattam, Repeat’. During one of the scenes that leads towards the climax, Prabhu Deva’s alter ego takes the form of Thiruvalluvar and says, “Endha nokkathodu vandha enna seidhu kondirukirai?” How I wish the makers had used this self-awareness while writing the film.