Cast: Jayam Ravi, Arvind Swamy, Nayanthara, Thambi Ramaiah, Ganesh Venkatraman, Sricharan, Harish Uthaman, Saiju Kurup, Nassar, Mugdha Godse.
Director: Mohan Raja.
This is a sort of film that is totally unexpected from the Mohan brothers. The older sibling is known for roping in the younger one for making Tamil films based on other language movies that have been declared blockbusters. So, ‘Thani Oruvan’- coming from Raja- is a big surprise; a surprise so good that you are found investing your concentration on the plot and not on the hazy filmography of the brothers.
Kamal Haasan as Raghavan in ‘Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu’ had set the benchmark for the role of cops. No other actor in recent times has jumped that signal. His sense of understanding the world around him was immaculate. Now, Jayam Ravi has certainly made a punching bag worthy of taking the punches in Mithran IPS, the character he devotedly plays in the movie. Like the mantra of ‘Thani Oruvan’, “Tell me who your enemy is and I’ll tell you what you are capable of doing", when we come to know that Ravi is in the center of the plot pulling and pushing the other characters that round up the film, we know his moves, we know his abilities and follies, we know what he’s capable of doing, but we just don’t have a warning sign that would alert us about Arvind Swamy’s unshakeable Siddharth Abhimanyu, the character Swamy remarkably gets into.
Ravi starts chasing Swamy to bring a closure to immorality. In a thriller like this, where the film is setup with a twist after twist, the hunter becomes the hunted. When Ajith Kumar flashed his Vinayak Mahadevan smile at the camera in ‘Mankatha’, we invariably joined the cheers of applause for all things bad; it’s time to do that again for Arvind Swamy’s Siddharth Abhimanyu as he is also an embodiment of evil. Whatever a villain might be, or whoever he might be, the hero will definitely save the day.
‘Thani Oruvan’ only partly uses the supporting characters in tightening the noose for Siddharth Abhimanyu and Nayanthara gets a romantic song with Ravi in the middle of this murky tale. Abhorrence! Nayanthara is deliciously comfortable in her role as Mahima. Why isn’t she seen throughout the film? In fact, her character has more meat than the regular eye candy treat that almost every Friday offers. The romance gets a thumbs-up for the two don’t overshadow the narrative with their mushy togetherness. Yet, it remains a distant dream to get the female lead be an equal part in an effective thriller.
The film stands on one and a half legs because Siddharth Abhimanyu will rank among the best villains whereas Mithran IPS will miss the mark in the heroes section by a large margin.
Rating: 3.5/5
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