Ponmagal Vandhal declares at the outset that justice is best served by heeding evidence and logic rather than emotion – and then proceeds ...
Ponmagal Vandhal declares at the outset that justice is best served by heeding evidence and logic rather than emotion – and then proceeds to ignore its own advice.
The production is slick, the pacing swift and the acting controlled. And yet, the Tamil movie, which is being streamed on Amazon Prime Video, is unable to advance its main concern – about the rape and sexual abuse of children – without resorting to astonishing plot twists.
The movie opens in 2004. A woman named Jothi has been killed by the police while resisting arrest for a pair of murders and serial child abuse. Closed-circuit television footage shows Jothi grabbing a little girl and then shooting two men who seem to be trying to prevent her from getting away. Jothi is said to have killed scores of children.
Nobody mourns the death of the woman known as “Psycho Jothi”. So when freshly minted advocate Venba (Jyotika) stands up in a courtroom and argues that Jothi is innocent, protestors come out in full force.
Venba is the daughter of Ooty busybody Pethuraj (K Bhagyaraj). His civic activism and fondness for public interest litigation have earned him the nickname “Petition Pethuraj”. The father and daughter have the reputation for fighting the...
