Thoongaavanam

The only disappointment for me in the case of Thoongaavanam was that they haven’t tried to reinterpret the whole backdrop of the film to make it look different from the original. Except for that key factor, Thoongaavanam is a well made situational thriller which has done complete justice to the original French version Sleepless Night. With realistic treatment making the whole plot intriguing till the last moment, Thoongaavanam is definitely worth watching.

It is actually the story of a crucial night in IRS officer Diwakar’s life. A drug deal in which Diwakar interfered caused problems for one businessman Vital Rao. Vital Rao kidnaps Diwakar’s son and as ransom he asked him to give him the drug which Diwakar “ceased”. Diwakar’s attempt to save his son and why he was part of this whole drug smuggling episode is what Thoongaavanam depicting.

Thoongaavanam is a well reconstructed remake and if you compare the original and Thoongaavanam, you won’t necessarily say that one is better than the other. The brisk speed, the tension, the natural progress of events with sensible enough complications was what made Sleepless Night a worthy movie and all those features are there in Thoongaavanam too. There are no songs and the kind of stunts and gunshots shown in the film are pretty damn good. The only creative addition in the movie is probably that post climax scene in which Kamal Haasan and Trisha tries that awkward jump at some guy who was pointing the gun at a police man.

On screen Kamal Haasan portrays the role of the IRS officer very elegantly. The performance had that grace and the dilemma of the situation was portrayed really neatly by him. Prakash Raj was a good choice for the role of Vital Rao as he has this knack to give life to comical antagonists. Trisha has to be appreciated for her physical efforts for all those fight sequences. Kishore and Sampath were also good in their characters. The kid who acted as Diwakar’s son was also impressive.

The possibility of ghost direction is there as the treatment has that Kamal Haasan touch of keeping the conversations and reactions simple and real. Rajesh M Selva has succeeded in making an engaging film that doesn’t compromise to make it a commercially appealing one (no songs or slow motions). The writing department hasn’t taken the risk of trying to place the story in a different setting or giving some tweaks to form a different conclusion. Cinematography was done very neatly by Sanu Varghese. Edits were sharp and the background score was fitting. It was a good work from the art department and also the stunt choreographers.

To sum it up, Thoongaavanam is as engaging as the original. It would have been better if they tried to do something different from the French version to give some sort of difference. The rating for the film is 3/5. If you haven’t seen Sleepless Night, do watch Thoongaavanam.