Pad Man – Noble intentions can maketh a movie. Almost.

Menstruation was never a taboo topic at my place. I was pretty young when I was first asked to buy sanitary pads for the women in my family.

However, many of us (guys) in middle school probably didn’t even have the faintest of idea what our mothers or sisters meant when saying they had a ‘problem’

I can stand tall and shout to anyone and everyone who’d hear, that calling it a ‘problem’ is one of the first things that needs to be stopped for something that is just a routine biological activity.

This is certainly not easy in sections of society that still celebrates the first menstrual cycle and then restricts the freedom of the girls in subsequent cycles.

My earliest memory of sanitary pads in a mainstream movie is in a sequence from the 2002 Tamil movie directed by Vasanth, “Hey Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke”, where the hero Shaam fights with a couple of random guys when they tell an inquisitive old guy that a packet of sanitary pads is actually a type of bread and then after a conversation where the hero admonishes them about passing such unwanted statements, they proceed to ask the heroine to teach what exactly it is used for.

Now, one can think that this is a completely progressive move. However, this scene begins with a woman buying sanitary pads from a pharmacy and Shaam commenting to the heroine(Sneha) that the lady could have been more discreet about her purchase(could have written it down) instead of asking it out loud for which Sneha responds by asking him to chill especially when the lady herself didn’t have a problem about it.

It was taboo. But the conversation was slowly opening up.

This was 2002.

In 2018, we have Pad Man.

My favourite moment from the movie is this scene where Radhika Apte playing the wide-eyed village belle Gayathri, who is asked to oscillate her expressions between eyes tearing up in shame and eyes widening with love, asks her husband Lakshmikant Chouhan (Akshay Kumar playing a fictionalised version of Arunachalam Muruganantham) “Why are you so obsessed with what’s between a woman’s legs?”

This is certainly not a new dialogue in Hindi or rather Indian cinema where such a dialogue insinuated the depravity and perversion of a character.

Here, the tables have turned because this is asked to a person who is just concerned about the safety of the woman he loves.

The movie is simply about Lakshmi who one fine day decides to help the women in his house, his colony, his street, his village, his state, his country and even his world by having them use a ‘safer’ option than a dirty rag cloth during their periods.

While making a biography, it is not about the what but more about the how that makes or breaks a movie.

Director R Balki and Akshay fly long enough to mask the flaws to make it an enjoyable jouney.

Pad Man is not a great movie. It has major pitfalls ranging from the incoherent timeline and the hurried romance between Lakshmi and Sonam, who plays Pari, an ambitious urban girl who decides to help bridge the dreams of Lakshmi with the reality in rural India.

Sonam’s character also gives us an all-important insight into the concept of mansplaining and basically hands a ‘get out of jail free’ card for the filmmaker and actor who constantly do it in this movie.

Even if one doesn’t know the story of Arunachalam, watching his nine-minute Ted talk will give one enough ideas about the story above which Twinkle Khanna and Akshay decided to mount this movie that miraculously avoids becoming too preachy.

The songs play an important part in helping the movie avoid assuming a message-y tone. Kausar Munir’s lyrics in the tunes composed by the ever-reliant Amit Trivedi are filled with lines that substitute those punch dialogues and even curbs the romance by avoiding extra scenes to establish the same.

But if there is a singular reason that helps in keeping Pad Man afloat, it is Akshay Kumar.

Akshay is in top form and manages to keep the earnestness alive in a character that can be termed eccentric because dogged persistence is not exactly a trait often used in Indian cinema unless it is a lead pursuing his lover (read stalking).

Akshay brings in credence to a character that is constantly criticised, insulted, humiliated and painted as a pervert.

He never falters once and doesn’t for a moment make the audience believe that such insults are affecting his resolve to do what he thinks will help the society.

Especially, in his final rousing speech at UN, Akshay soars high enough to ensure that a possible award praising his acting chops in Pad Man wouldn’t be as contested as the one he got for Rustom.

But yeah,as it was already said, Pad Man isn’t a great movie. It is more of a Facebook post that hopes to reach places where ‘Digital India’ hasn’t yet made its presence felt.

Will the release of this movie be a solution to the issues plaguing millions of women who remain ostracised during their periods? I don’t know.

Will it remove the onus being forced upon women that they are the ones to be blamed for perpetuating the stereotype and the men have no reason to be faulted for maintainiing the status quo? I don’t know.

But is it a conversation starter about the importance of menstrual hygiene and how affordability is forcing women to use ‘unsafe’ alternatives? Yeah, to an extent.

Menstrual hygiene is a topic that has even left the ‘educated elite’ in our country divided. So, a conversation among other sections of the society too is of paramount importance.

While some dismiss the need for sanitary pads, some swear by it. While some call it safe, others say it adversely affects the environment.

Obviously, even Arunachalam’s low-cost sanitary pads has its share of detractors who call it ineffective and other adjectives describing its lack of finesse.

However, despite facing humongous hurdles, the movie talks about an issue that needs to be portrayed on the big screen to elicit a much wider audience than a Ted Talk.

Pad Man does this and a lot more in 140 minutes.

Then, there is this other debate that has ruled roost right from the conception of this project to the release of the same.

Bollywood’s fixation in appropriating South Indian characters and ‘Vindhya-washing’ them to dole out North Indian characters rooted in the Hindi hinterland.

While it is a concept that am not exactly fond of, I didn’t mind it in Pad Man because this is a topic that had to be put out there.

Arunachalam too was given his due in the movie right from the inception to the movie’s promotions and post-credits.

Arunachalam made his first low-cost sanitary pad sometime during 2005-06.

Arunachalam was listed in the Time’s list of 100 most Influential people in 2014.

Arunachalam was bestowed the Padma Shri in 2014.

Pad Man was made in 2017.

In the 10-12 years in between, Tamil Cinema had its chance to make this inspirational story of the Coimbatore-born innovator.

Probably, they did try to approach the man for the rights, but it didn’t materialise.

Arunachalam chose Bollywood to tell his story. Twinkle and Akshay decided to monetise the idea to their benefit in the most moral way possible and in the process, opened up a conversation or two about menstrual hygiene.

There is no reason to make a hue and cry over the ‘northernisation’ of Arunachalam Murganantham, except for ruing a missed chance.

One might argue that Pad Man is an anti-thesis to what Arunachalam actually stood for. It is corporatisation of his idea but on a different platform.

I believe that he preferred the reach of Hindi cinema. Probably he didn’t mind Bollywood’s belief that South-based characters don’t exactly work for the box-office returns of a movie, as long as his message was delivered. It also makes sense that he’d be okay with it especially when he is someone who allowed the women self-help groups all across rural India to name his product as they pleased.

But yeah, Bollywood took it and marketed the heck out of it just because they can. Tamil Cinema doesn’t have that kind of reach yet.

Anyway Tamil Cinema can’t complain too much. In 1963, we made Chittoor Rani Padmini even before Deepika Padukone or Ranveer Singh was born and it didn’t quite face backlash for its exasperating farrago of distortions.

Karni Sena didn’t bother sending death threats and announcing bounty for cutting the nose of Vyjanthimala either.

Despite wanting to end this review of sorts with a well-constructed punch line or mic-drop worthy last word, I simply choose to use this spray painted message found on a wall in Chennai that best summarises one of the intents of the movie that was unfortunately left unexplored.