Hi all,

Director Radha Mohan and Producer Prakash Raj have given us heart warming films like Mozhi and Abhiyum Naanum in the past. This time, they have tried a new genre with Payanam. Payanam is an exciting and realistic flight hijack drama.

The movie starts off with a flight taking off at Chennai and it is heading towards Delhi. The flight has passengers who belong to all walks of life ranging from a leading actor to a central minister. As fate would have it, the flight is hijacked mid-air by five terrorists who boarded the flight as passengers and the flight lands at Tirupati for negotiations. The terrorists demand the government to release Yusuf Khan who was arrested earlier after a lot of struggle. Yusuf gets killed in an accident when he was being brought from a jail in Kashmir to Tirupati. The rest of the story is how Home Secretary Vishwanath (Prakash Raj) and NSG commando Ravi (Nagarjuna) act smart and save the people sans any gimmicks.

Prakash Raj is a brilliant actor, as we all know. He has done his role with ease. Nagarjuna is stiff and smart. He has given a brilliant performance as a NSG commando. His dialogues are very powerful. For instance, he says 'We've won against terrorists many times. But, we can never win against politicians’. This shows the selfishness of politicians who are not ready to take any action against terrorists, fearing elections. MS Bhaskar as a Christian Priest scores heftily. He sparkles in a scene where he asks the terrorists to permit him to read Bible and when they refuse, he says he is ready to read Quran. All the other supporting actors have done their roles exceptionally well. The movie has no songs which is an added advantage to the movie. The background score of Pravin Mani is gripping. The airport is brilliantly recreated and credits must be given to art director and cinematographer for this.

Payanam is another feather in the cap for Radha Mohan. The entire crew can be proud of themselves for giving a brilliant film.