Padman Trailer Review: It Is Akshay Kumar’s Toilet ek Prem Katha of 2018!

The  Padman trailer  is finally out.And it’s an  outright winner. The story of Arunachalam Muruganantham from Tamil Nadu is now the story  of  Laxmikant Chauhan, a.k.a Akshay Kumar. The story is located  in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh.It’s  a location teeming  with temples and food stalls, brimming with bigotry.

The cultural translocation  could’ve cost the original story dearly. Here in  Padman  it makes not a fig of difference. Akshay Kumar, God bless his kindered spirit and exploratory choices, carries the message with his persuasive charms  so effortelessly that the trailer sweeps you into its arc  of endearing social reform without a moment  of discomfort regarding the ‘M’  condition that women face every month.

 Make no mistake, Akshay is back playing the social crusader. In his last release Toilet Ek Prem Katha he fought societal  prejudices  to build a toilet  for  his wife. Here in Padman his character egged on by Mr Amitabh Bachchan’s  encouraging  voiceover, goes to great lengths to conceive create and  promote economical sanitary napkins because….well…because when  a woman bleeds, our Padman’s heart bleeds.

In  just two minutes Akshay  communicates to us the urgent need  to end the feminine race’s menstrual discomfort. He  is so comfortable talking about the …ahem… pad, you feel he is a sanitary version  of Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya  le Jayenge where the  hero gained entrance into the private ladies’ section  of the wedding venue.

 Here in Padman Akshay’s Laxmikant insinuates  himself  into a lot more private places  in a  woman’s life. He  is  Lord Krishna  out to  make his way into the innermost chambers  of  a woman’s private space and to  pull them out of the societal stigma that menstruation imposes .

Akshay addresses the  ‘that time  of  the month’ with  disarming flair. He has  terrific support  from his director R Balki who keeps the proceedings bouncy without trivializing the problem. The  music is breezy and the supporting cast seems to get the point. Radhika Apte is the wife and Sonam Kapoor the  comrade in arms. Both the ladies are up to the task.

This Republic Day women are being promised a  new kind  of freedom that comes only to those individuals who dare to break the glass ceiling. In a revealing moment in the trailer the pad-man tries  on  a woman’s undergarment to see how well his life-changing invention fits .

 I dare any other Bollywood superstar to get so Alpha without tripping over his machismo.