Thalaivaa

The same old rise of the underdog style storyline narrated in a slightly fresh way with fewer amounts of typical Tamil mass masala ingredients.  Thalaivaa from Vijay-Vijay combo is a movie that sets its stage interestingly but ends up in a very predictable fashion. While Vijay manages to shine in his character, the excessive screenplay makes the movie a bit tiring.

The plot here has its main protagonist Vishwa settled in Australia. He is the owner of a Mineral water company and also the lead of a dance group “Tamil Pasanga”. He falls in love with a Tamil girl there and for marrying her he wants to seek permission from his father Ramadurai whom he hasn’t seen much. Vishwa is also unknown about his father’s business in Mumbai as Ramadurai stayed away from Vishwa from his childhood itself. The film basically focuses on the arrival of Vishwa in India and the series of events that makes him step into the shoes of his father who meant a lot for some people.

One positive thing I felt about this film is that it doesn’t have that usual Vijay, especially in the first half. I loved the way the actor performed in those humorous sequences in the first half. A L Vijay was also successful in mixing the Santhanam comedy track in sync with the narrative (Something many directors should really consider doing). Even though it has these unbaked jokes like the people proposing Meera, Sam Anderson sequence and those scenes involving restaurant cook, the movie somewhere manages to engage us with some lush visuals of Australia and that pleasant feel. But as it enters the main phase, where our hero starts his transformation, the movie becomes much formulaic. Usual heroism, sentiments, the accustomed deeds of the antagonist and some foul plays from the trust worthy are there in the second half which goes on and on.  Only thing A L Vijay manages to do here is to add a pinch of sensibility to the same things we have seen in films like Vettaikaaran.

In the making, direction is smart in parts. A L Vijay at times compromises his usual style for some lame humor and heroics. The failure is mainly in the screenplay that’s too long. The first half is enjoyable for its fun factor, but looking at what they were really aiming for there wasn’t any necessity of creating such a lengthy first half. The second half as I said goes through that usual terrain where we will see the democracy of the don with four or five henchmen and an SUV. The cinematography from Nirav Shah’s is really impressive. I wasn’t that impressed with the songs. Unlike many Vijay films, there isn’t much emphasis on fight sequences.

Vijay performs well as Vishwa. The change I felt was in his acting in those first half sequences. Amala Paul is ok. Santhaanam once again manages to crack the audience with his typical comedy rendering. Sathyaraj was perfect as Anna. Abhimanyu Singh is that conventional antagonist who loses temper easily.

Overall Thalaivaa, is a watchable flick that doesn’t have anything refreshingly new to talk about. The controversies surrounding the movie in terms of politics are baseless. My rating is a 2.5/5 for Thalaivaa. It will surely entertain the fans of the superstar.