Movie: Thani Oruvan
Direction: Mohan Raja
Cast: Jayam Ravi, Nayanthara, Arvind swamy, Thambi Ramaiah, Ganesh Venkatraman, Nasser, Vamsi Krishna, Harish Uthaman, Sricharan, Sanjana Singh
Music Director: Hip Hop Tamizha
Cinematography: Ramji
Editor: Gopikrishna
Genre: Action/Thriller
Rating: ∗∗∗
Jayam Raja’s association with his brother has always proved fruitful irrespective of the film being a remake or a straight film. THANI ORUVAN reiterates this point yet again.
What is it about: Jayam Ravi and his entourage are the new age Robin hood who track down mischief makers at night, but during the day are training to become IPS officers and waiting for their respective posting. But they are ideologists of their own who believe that they don’t need the job to actually perform their duty. During their stints with the small time goons, Jayam Ravi figures out that the small time crimes are actually a facade to hide the bigger conspiracy of the society. After a thorough ground work done by him, he figures out hat the man behind all this is Siddharth Abimanyu (Arvind Swami), a scientist, an award winner, but at the end of the day, a business man who likes to market and promote his invention in a way that can make him the most money, thereby resorting to less than legal methods. Now what happens, when a state-of-the-art scientist deals with a loyal cop. A huge cat & mouse game right! Ofcourse….
What’s disappointing: This film took at least forty-five minutes to gain some pace, that too with some annoying love scenes and a flashback with Nayanthara, that never contributed to the story or took the movie forward. In recent times, after a stupendous comeback that she enjoyed in RajaRani, she has been reduced to a mere eye candy in the last couple of films, like Masss and now Thani oruvan. Her acting skills are so predictable and her looks have been made stereotypical. As of the screenplay is concerned, the director overdid the “Intelligence factor” too much to the point that it seemed ridiculous in some places. We have already touched upon medical conspiracy in loads of other films, especially some brilliant ones like “EE” by SP Janarthanan. This movie didn’t satisfy our intellectual appetite in comparison to movies that has pondered on this topic, per se.
What to watch out for: Being a racy action cop thriller, one can expect this movie to remind us of loads of other films we have seen time and again, but this movie stands out compared to tons of other movies just for the one X-factor, the ever charming Arvind Swami. If we thought he was such a good-looking actor in his previous films, his badassery in this film shows another dimension to his personality and acting skills. Each and every frame that he is in makes us forget all its flaws and loopholes (which the movie of course has). Besides this charming villain, the background score, the visuals, and a beach song (though distracting in its placement) are highlights. Thambi Ramaiyah was equally good with his comic timing and suited the role to a T.
Verdict: Maybe the reason this movie was so hyped up could have been this movie being the “first original creation” by Jayam Raja, an attempt at which he probably deserves some credit.
But watch this movie for the one guy ARVIND SWAMI, who with his class, looks, intelligence, acting skills, distracts this movie from all its flaws and happens to be the “ONLY MAN” to render spice, interest and life to the otherwise run-of-the-mill film.
