PAILWAAN MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Pailwaan opens with Sarkar (Suniel Shetty), owner of a gymkhana in the town of Gajendranagar, witnessing a fight between a young boy and three men who are twice his size. After seeing the intent of the boy's fight, Sarkar decides to not only bring him under his tutelage but also adopts him. The boy grows up to be Krishna aka Kicha (Kiccha Sudeep), a talented wrestler with an eye for trouble.

Kiccha's rivals are the feudal king and the uncontested Rana (Sushant Singh), and Tony (Kabir Dulhan Singh), a boxer who decides to go against his coach Vijayendra (Sharath Lohithaswa) by recklessly decimating his opponents. After that incident, Vijayendra wows to create a new champion, which leads him to Kiccha. Pailwaan opens with a voiceover that compares the protagonists' journey with that of Lord Krishna, which appears as an allegory to Kiccha's character arc.

After showing brief moments of promise, the film veers into the zone of generic writing and filmmaking. The plot decides to throw a flabby romantic track between Kiccha and Rukmani (Aakanksha Singh). Their love story involves a cringeworthy scene where Rukmani asks Kiccha to buy her booze, which leads to him judging her character. The pointlessness of such sequences hurts the pacing a lot.

The initial portions could have thrown more light into the dynamic between Sarkar and Kiccha, but instead, the first half is more preoccupied with adding commercial elements and introducing one-note characters and situations. The narrative leads to some good moments, but the presence of unnecessary scenes and an underwhelming romance weighs it down (The height of such clichés is a scene where the heroine's father writes a blank cheque to Kiccha for him to stay away from her)

But post the first half, the film tends to become a bit more intriguing, after Kiccha marries Rukmani and gets burdened by new responsibilities of family and financial problems, while the heartbreaks and rivals of the past start haunting him. The film's potential resurfaces during the scenes that have more restraint. One of the most poignant moments of the film involves the scene where Kiccha explains Sarkar on why he chose to enter the boxing league competition. The character arcs connect the dots of the initial moments and its inconsequential sequences. Even the generic lead romance comes with a good payoff. 

 Kiccha Sudeepa appears very convincing as the protagonist and shines during the scenes where he exudes fatherly warmth, while Suniel Shetty's screen presence augurs well for the character of Sarkar. Director Krishna's writing gives better emotional beats in the second half. On the technical aspects, the action choreography has done justice in the climactic sequences, with special credit going to the makeup department for depicting the wounds in a realistic manner. Overall, Pailwaan is a mildly entertaining drama that is enhanced by the emotionally charged moments in the second half and a good social message.