UlagaNayagan KAMALHAASAN in ||"PAPANASAM"|| Directed by Jeethu Joseph

[vidyasakaran]

Th first 40 minutes are not only required to set up the plot and charecter, it is also very much needed for the later half of the film:

1. Kamal digging the pit for natural fertilizer
2. Kamal and Kalabavan Mani's tiffs in tea shop for several reasons.
3. Sequence of police station building and related cement storage in his godown
4. Sequence which tells kamal is always late to home as he is at office

You take out even one of these, the second half will have a plot hole. Its so tightly knit.

When we read a novel, high points of a novel come only in few pages - approaching a work of art needs some patience and little effort from the viewer.

Some more...
5. Suyambulingam watches soft porn as well. That might be another factor contributing to his guilt. He probably will never be able to bring himself to watch one after the incident.
6. His well-known stingy nature, which he would use later to explain his keeping all the bills. Also to justify him not having a mobile.
7. Habeas Corpus reference to hint the character's learning from cinema and to make Tea shop owner tell that in interrogation, giving a turning point in IG's thought process
8. Pasamalar scene to hint the audience on sentimentality of the character, which would invariably feel the pain (even the enacted ones) of the other as his own. A sobbing mother and a helpless, sad father in front of him, he is definite to feel their pain and behave the way he did.
9. His tiffs with the constable, growing enmity and also to infuse suspicion when he stops doing that post the incident