'Pasanga': wonderful film about the wonder years (Tamil Film Review)

Film: 'Pasanga'; Cast: Sriram, Kishore, Vimal, Vega; Music: James Vasanthan; Cinematography: Prem Kumar; Direction: Pandiraj; Rating: ***1/2

After the success of its debut venture 'Subramaniapuram', Company Productions have come up with another lovely film in 'Pasanga' (children).

Debutant director Pandiraj has exhibited a sound understanding over the medium and has extracted work of high quality from his star cast dominated by adolescents.

Set in a rural setting of a government run school, the movie deals with the pangs of growing up and puppy love narrated with oodles of humour.

A young school bully Jeeva (Sriram) is surprised by the spunk in a new classmate Anbu (Kishore) who has shifted to the government-owned school from a private institution following his father's downturn in fortunes.

The studious Anbu goes on to win the heart of the bully's sister played by Keerthana and the entire class with his helping nature in solving problems - within and beyond the curriculum.

And then there is the adult love interest in the form of trysts between Anbu's uncle Meenakshisundaram (Vimal) and Jeeva's elder sibling and school teacher (portrayed brilliantly by Vega).

The mix of characters established through a neat screenplay in different shades and shapes are neatly bound together during the simple but moving climax leaving a lovable lump in the throat.

Vega has improved tremendously after her first outing. The rest of the cast - all real life schoolchildren - are splendid amidst the rustic background filmed wonderfully by Prem Kumar.

James Vasanthan excels through his musical score, according a nice feel to the proceedings. A song by veteran crooner M. Balamuralikrishna is a feather in an otherwise crowded cap.