Health inspector Pattabhiraman won’t turn a blind eye towards food adulteration, and it has earned him numerous transfers, enemies and more. His latest posting is in Thiruvananthapuram. Everyone knows about the level of adulteration in the food we consume today and at best, it comes up as a casual remark in our conversations post health department raids. The defaulters in adulteration cases easily get away with fines too. But what about the strains of deadly diseases these ‘food items’ deposit in us? Pattabhiraman tries to educate us about the same, through its eponymous hero who is on a fight against the trend.
Pattabhiraman (Jayaram) is a warrior against food adulteration and on his latest transfer, due to this, to the capital city. His colleagues Valsan (Baiju), Shukoor (Hareesh Kanaran), Suni (Dharmajan) and more enter his life at this point, alongside TV personality Thanuja (Miya) and a hotelier’s daughter Vineetha (Sheelu). Pattabhi is always on guard when it comes to adulteration alerts, and it changes his life in the capital city, as well. In the first half of the movie, Pattabhiraman serves the story like a feast that looks quite enticing, with its multi-colored spreads, an engaging plot, interesting revelations, characters and more. It’s great that the film has taken up this socially relevant subject and tries to educate masses on the adverse effects of adulteration. Till the half time, it manages well to keep the viewer interested in the plotline. The film stays on track as far as the core theme is concerned post-interval, but it becomes a bland dish made of illogical loopholes and extremely predictable, dramatic twists thereon. Often, just as a sequence starts, one can foresee what it’s leading and even the BGM sounds more comic that thrilling for this reason.
The actors also can’t rise above the average script from the second half and by the time the end credits roll, the movie hardly leaves an impact on the viewer despite dealing with a subject with extreme potential. Food adulteration and its ill effects is a topic that definitely merits serious discussions, but Pattabhiraman’s presentation of the matter isn’t impressive or stirring enough to trigger that in the minds of viewers.
