Tharangam

Tharangam from Dominic Arun is almost a tribute to the signature Priyadarshan films that we have seen in his prime years. Influenced heavily by the western film making this movie is a wacky variety that looks fresh and interesting even though it has flaws. With situations and characters having no caricature shade, Tharangam feels like one that should be appreciated.

Padmanabhan (Pappan) and Joy are two suspended police officers. To solve some ongoing issues in his life Pappan needed some money and he decided to take up a low profile spying job as he was in suspension. But the seemingly silly case took a whole new shape after a point and Tharangam is showing the chaotic confusing run of Pappan and Joy to solve this mess.

The film starts with a quirky setup of heaven that would remind you of Wes Anderson movies. The proceedings in the script will definitely remind you of the style Guy Ritchie follows. And obviously the Priyadarshan influence is there. Priyadarshan has tried that formula even in the recent past but the repetitiveness made them look underwhelming. What I liked about Dominic Arun’s take on the film is the fact that he tries to make it a little more sensible. There is no eccentricity to the characters. There were ample moments in the film were I laughed out loud.

Dominic Arun made an impression with his short film Mrithyumjayam. Tharangam in terms of treatment is an extension of that. The God sequences and the end of the chase sequence where Pappan and the ATM stealer just walks after getting tired were some quite impressive hilarious scenes. Dominic experiments a lot with the visual narration. There is a disguised fourth wall breaking and in the beginning there was a sequence where Vijayaraghavan and Tovino are talking to each other through phone by looking at each other. The extensive length of the film and some of the complications is probably the negatives of Tharangam. They could have trimmed it and made it a little more compact. Visuals were good. The cuts and the BGM provide the quirkiness the film demands.

Tovino Thomas yet again proves that he has that flexibility to be a main stream hero with really good timing in comedy. His character Padmanabhan is a loser and he plays the role of this flawed guy nicely. Balu Varghese lowers the pitch a little bit from his usual style and that helps his performance. Santhy Balachandran was fine as Malu. Neha Iyer’s portrayal of Omana was convincing except for the fact that the dubbing was a bit out of sync. I was happy to see Sarath Sabha in a good role as he was so good in Babusenan brothers’ Ottayaal Paatha. The cast has people like Manoj K Jayan, Shammy Thilakan, Vijaya Raghavan, Saiju Kurup, Dileesh Pothan, Alencier, Sijoy Varghese and a few more. Unni Mukundan delivers a flawless performance in his 15 minutes cameo.

Varieties don’t get accepted that easily and for those who believe in conventional way of film making, this experiment named Tharangam may not be entirely digestible. I enjoyed watching this film even though I sensed certain silliness in the writing.

Rating: 3/5