Exaggeration and spoon feeding has always been a part of mainstream commercial Tamil films. Ironically the other characters in the movie Thaanaa Serndha Koottaam mock the hero by saying “you will have a back-story for all this right?” The downside of this adaptation of Special 26 by Neeraj Pandey is this back-story thing. And towards the end they try to go to a Shankar level of social reformation, which for me was a bit too much to accept.
So our hero has a lot of friends who are jobless and he himself aspires to be a CBI officer. The rejection he faced during the hunt for that job makes him do something that was technically illegal but morally right. His plans gave the original CBI a tough time and the film Thaanaa Serndha Koottaam tells us about their attempts to stop our hero and his gang.
The film is set in the pre mobile phone era and that helps it in escaping from a lot of complications. Like I said, what Vignesh Shivn has done here is mainly adding a lot of subplots to the original. The Neeraj Pandey version never purposefully focused on the reasons why they were doing all the wrong stuff and because it is Tamil cinema and the hero has to be morally correct, Thaanaa Serndha Koottaam invests a lot of time in justifying his action. The issue is that in between all these explanations and sentiments, the peppiness of a thriller gets lost. Special 26 was like an edge of the seat ride with Neeraj Pandey narrating in his signature fast paced way. That charm is not here.
Suriya has got the looks and grace to pull off “Uthaman”. It is a character more close to his vibrant image rather than the masala hero image. Keerthy Suresh occasionally overacts and is kind of okay when being cool and isn’t entirely a significant character. I liked Remya Krishnan’s version of Anupam Kher’s character. Senthil wasn’t really used. Thambi Ramaiah wasn’t high for a change. Karthik doesn’t have much to do here when compared to his potential.
Vignesh Shivn knows to add quirky humor to the narrative. We have seen him handling humor neatly in Naanum Rowdy Thaan. But it’s the overblown script that annoys. The elaborate nature reduces the thrill factor. In the last quarter of the story Vignesh adds his bit. But it could only be described as different from the original and not interesting. And the climax portion which will remind you of the ambitious climaxes similar to Shankar films wasn’t working for me. The cinematography was fine. The edits kind of felt like Sreekar Prasad was short of proper footage. Anirudh’s music and background score were convincing and peppy.
Thaanaa Serndha koottaam is a bit too ambitious and not really unique. Because of the interesting basic story it becomes somewhat engaging. But because of the above mentioned cons, it wasn’t that appealing.
Rating: 2.5/5
Because of the interesting basic story it becomes somewhat engaging. But because of the above mentioned cons, it wasn't that appealing.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
