Pathinettam Padi

Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote - The film is crammed with characters and subplots that leave you overwhelmed. Is this the story about Ashwin Vasudev who overcame his flaws to build a school that challenges the conventional idea of education? Or is it the story of Ayyappan, who remembers his first love after taking a bullet near his chest in a gun battle at the border? Or it must be about students who abuse drugs? No wait, it is about Mammootty’s John Abraham Palakkal taking on the flawed educational system? Actually, it’s about everything and everyone. It is just too much. The background score of the film is also so confusing as it is hard to tell the heroes from the villains. Even the bad guys get to deliver lengthy punchlines, walk in slow motion, and strike action poses.[8]

S R Praveen of The Hindu called the movie an unrealistic depiction of student rivalry in schools and wrote - At the core of the film is the long-standing rivalry between student gangs belonging to two schools in Trivandrum city. It is the kind of rivalry which seems quite unreal for school students, even in a masala entertainer, mainly due to the level of violence involved. Notwithstanding the fact that some of these stylized stunts are aesthetically shot or well-choreographed, these scenes don’t belong in a movie about school students. Similarly, the five-star hangouts of the international school students, complete with an ‘item song’ also looks far removed from reality. The characters of the girls are relegated to the background, with hardly any of them getting a line or two to utter. Too many characters make their appearance, but only a couple of them are written with any depth to them. The whole bunch of newcomers do show promise, lighting up the screen with their infectious energy, even as the script, written by director Shanker Ramakrishnan himself, sags.[9]