One of the most interesting aspects of Ponman has to be the contrasting styles of the character traits and dynamics that beautifully sum up the contrasting traits of the city of Kollam. At the start, you witness Bruno ripping a man to pulp on the pretext of the latter tearing the political posters of his party that were stuck on the church wall. This was in sharp contrast to Bruno reimagining his new acquaintance Markandeya (Deepak Parambol) to be Jesus after the latter provides a solution to save his sister’s marriage. The same is also true for Bruno’s mother (Sandhya Rajendran) who at any given moment isn’t in sync with Bruno’s actions and his trait of whiling away his time. But for her, Steffi’s (Lijomol Jose) marriage to a local criminal becomes an event of paramount importance, simply because Steffi is in her early 30s, and partly because she wouldn’t need to worry about the lifestyles of her daughter. In an argument she exclaims that the groom does go fishing and so, a few clamps of fish would be enough to fill her stomach.

Elsewhere, even Ajesh remains an interesting character who is contrast to the image that you would perceive gold lenders to be. He is short and mid-sized, hardly intimidating even when he is to give a threat with respect to the deadline of his payment. Initially, you also view his alcoholism as an annoying but affable habit wherein you witness him having a ‘shirtless’ ball on the beach during the wedding. This, even as he reluctantly awaits his chance to sneak into Steffi’s bedroom to retain his gold, after Bruno’s family do not quite make the cut as far as the total amount is concerned (partly also due to Bruno’s stance and the recent ruckuss that repelled the attendance of both the members of his party and the church, ironically). But as the drama progresses, you do see a searing character arc of Ajesh, one that keeps getting darker and darker with persistence.

Some of the other characters also have similar contrasting traits that leave them in the area of the ‘grey’. For instance, Steffi in a scene exclaims categorically on how she will not return the gold to Ajesh, while also claiming that the sole responsibility of the same lies with her ‘good-for-nothing’ brother. This was a sharp contrast to her nature upto that point wherein she seemingly seemed in agreement of her marriage with a gangster. On the other hand, Mariyano (a beefed up Sajin Gopu) is an intimidating personality who remains unhinged with respect to his behavior towards the folks around him. He isn’t apologetic about man-handling his wife in front of hus family, while beating another man to pulp simply because he committed a meagre crime at his fish farm. Therefore, even as Ajesh tries to warm-up to him with his friendly vibes, Mariyano remains steadfast, still giving out angry vibes in return. The only scene wherein you see his humane self coming to the forefront is when he reveals to Ajesh that he has a debt on his head too, and hence, the dowry for him is important.

There is a searing commentary on morality and the prevalent dowry system that is used as an undercurrent here. This, even as the tone of the drama has a unique trajectory too. The initial tone of the drama felt like a breezy comedy laced with a social commentary, something that you would associate from the filmography of the yesteryear’s director duo Siddique-Lal. There is almost a playful energy interjected amidst a cat and mouse game between Ajesh and the family of Bruno, with the former stopping at nothing to get his gold back. But as the drama progresses, there is a gradual shift in the tone inclining itself towards a black comedy and later a raw and intriguing face-off to sum up the proceedings.

The little gripe that I had was that the tone did not necessarily add a complex layer to the proceedings. In fact, the inconsistent tone coupled with some pacing issues in the second hour stalled the drama from entering into the greatness territory. The drama still was intriguing while I was witnessing the Ajesh-Mariyano face-off that played out like a David-Goliath fable. However, the rudimentary payoff that the end didn’t really leave me with a high although the impact of the drama did not nose-dive either. It was good but not great. That said, the characterization remained the highlight and one reason why the stakes in the drama were not lowered, and that quite summed up the screenplay that may not have been a total knockout but it still was raw and intriguing in its own right.