Punyalan Private Limited review: fine idea lost in execution

Punyalan Private Limited is Ranjith Sankar's attempt to try the social justice theme which usually gets executed in huge budgets by directors like Sankar. The sequel to the 2013 movie Punyalan Agarbattis, this movie is trying a little too much to make it's leading man an icon and thus the film becomes that average movie which couldn't utilize it's scope.

Joy Thakkolkkaran is facing a lot of issues these days. His wife passed away, he left politics and his dream company Punyalan Agarbattis also got shut down. But the ambitious Joy came up with another plan and it was mineral water business this time. But as always the hardships puts him in a difficult place and the film shows us how he plans to get over this.

From his first film itself, Ranjith Sankar has tried to incorporate socially relevant elements in his films. Punyalan Agarbattis was actually his first successful attempt to handle the theme with the help of humor. Punyalan was hilarious at many levels and that was the reason why it worked with the audience. When it came to Punyalan Private Limited that fun is no longer there in good quantity. Joy Thakkolkkaran gets this make over where he is becoming the cause of a drastic social change. And honestly the way they staged that transformation wasn't that convincing.

The writing is the weak part here. While Ranjith Sankar manages to keep the treatment similar to Punyalan, the approach towards the story is unimpressive. He is making Joy Thakkolkkaran the complete package of social reformation and because of that the emotional quotient isn't that great. And the authenticity of all these transitions in the movie looks highly over ambitious. And also some of the "master plans" in the film doesn't really feel like praise worthy. On the technical side too the film isn't scoring largely.

Jayasurya has managed to create the persona of Joy Thakkolkkaran in the last film and he gracefully carries forward the performance. Humor and serious tones are safe in his hands. Vijayaraghavan in that unconvincing make up was okay as the CM. Sreejith Ravi's Abhayan got over used. Aju Varghese is there in a cameo like role. Dharmajan was funny and Vishnu Govindan wasn't.

The message part is fine for Punyalan Private Limited. But movies these days are far better in conveying messages in ways that will influence people. This one is an average.