Senna Hegde’s 2023 film, Padmini, is a comedy-drama that is just as relatable as it is humorous. Starring Kunchacko Boban and Aparna Balamurali, Padmini will get you absorbed into its entertaining storyline filled with twists at every turn. Since we’ll be talking about the entirety of Padmini, this is your spoiler warning.
The storyline of Padmini centers around Rameshan, our multi-talented protagonist, who is in his mid-thirties and still single. He somehow finds himself a suitable wife named Smrithi, only for her to run away on the day of their wedding. One thing that’s amazing about Rameshan is that he is skilled in things like Martial arts, poetry, art, and whatnot.
Senna Hegde is known for her wholesome and hilarious films, but Padmini’s probably one of her best projects as its plot is exciting & brings to light issues that women, men, and everyone in general face when trying to find a suitable partner. Asides from Kunchacko Boban, Padmini’s crew consists of Aparna Balamurli in the role of Sreedevi, Vincy Aloshious plays Smriti, and Madonna Sebastian plays Padmini.
Padmini: Film Summary
The movie begins with Rameshan’s wedding, where we hear every guest trying to make small talk over things like the wedding’s food, bride, decoration, and everything else that stereotypical guests talk about. Rameshan successfully gets married to Smrithi, but when they go out on a walk on the night of their wedding, Rameshan sees that a man is already waiting for Smrithi in a Padmini car.
Rasmeshan is oblivious as to what is going on, but Smrithi lets him know that she is in love with Siju, the guy waiting for her, and wants to run away with him. At the moment, Rameshan just lets her go, seeing that she wouldn’t have been able to live with him while having feelings for Siju anyway.
The village soon finds out about this, and this marks the beginning of Rameshan being nicknamed Padmini since his wife escaped in a car of that name. Two years pass by, and Rameshan is still single. He is set to meet Sreedevi, a Lawyer, who would be his potential bride. Unfortunately, things don’t work out, and Sreedevi gets engaged to a mattress company guy named Jayan.
Seeing how independent and self-sufficient Sreedevi was, Jayan always feels insecure about her, and they often end up in silly little arguments. The college that Rameshan teaches at gets a new employee named Padmini. Rameshan and her soon get into a relationship and decide to marry each other, but life gets in the middle once again, and Rameshan realizes that he never divorced Smrithi.
Thus begins the quest of locating Smrithi and convincing her to agree to divorce. Since she and Siju were a thing, Rameshan thought the process is going to be very easy, but when he arrived at their home, he saw that Smrithi and Siju do nothing but constantly argue. They still let her know the date of the Divorce court hearing and asked her to be present.
Padmini: Ending Explained
As we approach the end of Padmini, we see that everyone arrives at the court, including Padmini, her family, Rameshan, and Sreedevi, who is now Rameshan’s Lawyer. The twist is that Smrithi never arrives. This causes Padmini and her parents to assume that Rameshan is not that serious about her, so they leave the court.
This comes off as a bit strange, as just a while ago, Padmini was engaged to Rameshan, and they were in love with each other. However, this is just a light-hearted comedy, so they didn’t focus on the issue much. We see Smrithi later revealing that she was shocked over Siju leaving her and Rameshan asking for divorce at the same time. One final, thoughtful act that Rameshan does is that he helps Siju and Smrithi get back together.
We don’t see what happens between Rameshan and Smrithi after that. It’s possible that since Smrithi was back with Siju, she happily signed the divorce papers, leaving the door open for Padmini to come back into Rameshan’s life. Padmini and Rameshan were suitable for each other, not only because both of their names were Padmini but also because they just got along well.
Asides from making viewers laugh, Senna Hegde also showed the pressure society puts on young adults/adults to get married early, even if it means marrying someone they don’t even know or like. Whether it was Rameshan, Smrithi, or Monica, everyone was made to marry without their choice, and none of the marriages ended happily, except for Smrithi, who got back with Siju.
Nonetheless, If you’re looking for wholesome Malayalam comedy, Padmini, and other films by Senna Hegde are perfect choices. It is now available to watch on Netflix.
Also Read: Vaalvi Movie Ending Explained: The Most Comical End To A Dark Film
