THALAIVAA MOVIE REVIEW

 The coming together of the two Vijays of Tamizh cinema, 'Ilayathalapathy' Vijay and director A.L Vijay, has piqued the interests of Tamizh cinema followers. The intriguing combination, brings two, distinctively different people of styles and cinema, into a single film. The former, for his 'mass' masala entertainer, whereas the latter for his sensitive and slow-moving style of film-making. With a good production crew and a big star cast and top-class technicians, did 'Thalaivaa' really strike a fine balancing-act, en-route to winning the prospective thumbs-up from the general audience?

Its a waste of time, writing and eulogizing the dancing and comedy prowess of Vijay as a star. He has done it plenty of times in his 20 years of cinematic life as a leading hero. Its the actor and performer in him which we would really want to watch on the silver screen and in 'Thalaivaa', our wishes are granted, in commensurate proportions, in terms of space and scope. The first half is the usual act of the charming, lovable and sweet-natured persona, with the perfect comic-timing, smooth dance movements, and cute romantic approaches. The second half is a total transformation all-together, where its dark, gritty and has a serious undertaking in his acting approach. It is quiet refreshing to see him enact a role, which was a fairly well-written one. Though we have seen him in roles which oozes authoritarianism and style, plenty of times, in 'Thalaivaa' he strikes a fine-balancing of doing a fair bit of acting, yet at the same time pull of his distinctive style and entertainer act, with panache. His action and dancing sequences were neatly done, as well. Kudos to A.L Vijay for presenting a refreshing and energized Vijay to us ! 

Veteran, Sathyaraj was brilliant in his short screen-time. His powerful, yet pensive mood suits him very aptly, and for an actor of his stature, it would have been a piece of cake ! Amala Paul pulls of a decent job with her limited role and enhanced the credibility of the character's natural persona by dubbing in her own voice, fluently. Santhanam, as usual pulls of his witty one-liners, with the perfect timing and evokes laughter from us. Its amazing to see this guy pull it off in each and every film he is involved ! The antagonist, Abhimanyu Singh should have done better in his role as his portrayal lacks the intensity, the character demanded. A powerful star cast in Rajiv Pillai, Ragini Nandwani, Nassar, Udhay, Ponvannan, Y.Gee Mahendran, Suresh, Manobala, Subbu Panchu, Kishore, Ravi Prakash and guest roles from Rekha and Sam Anderson, gives the film a solid base, in terms of performances. Good casting from A.L Vijay !

Deepali Noor and Pallavi Singh's costume designing was in sync with the mood change-overs of the film. The lead pair looked very presentable and charming in their stylish costumes, and extra brownie points for the special change-over for Vijay in the second half. 'Stunt' Silva's action choreography was very believable and stylishly done, especially the night fight sequence. Very realistically and subtly handled by Silva. R.K Naguraj's production design, gave the film a very rich and clean look. His props and set work for the second half as well as the cool interiors for the first half, based in Australia was artistically handled and followed a particular color-tone in the change-overs. Anthony's editing is flawless, though the length of the film is rather questionable. The major strength of the film besides the casting is the cinematography and Nirav Shah proves his a wizard once again. Nirav has captured the beauty of Sydney and also the raw and rustic nature of the other side of Mumbai, perfectly ! His color-tones usage for the respective halves in the film, blends well with the mood of the screenplay. His top-angle and tight close-up techniques were well used. Another top-notch work from Nirav !

G.V Prakash usually reserves some of his best for A.L Vijay and he continues it here as well. There is a bit song like a hum, which goes "Thaalealo" in some important sequences in  the film. "Tamizh Pasanga" was shot in Sydney and is a good platform for Vijay to prove his good dancing skills. The set-up was well done for the song, and Sydney's mild weather and clean rive-side environment were well used, as well as able aid from the group dancers. "Sol Sol" was only used as a short bit-song when Vijay casts his eyes on Amala Paul for the first time. "Yaar Indha Saalai" is a sweet song shot in montages, with the splendor and beauty of Sydney in the evening, captured very aesthetically by Nirav. The song has some additional great lines from Santhanam mixed together with the montages. "The Ecstasy of Dance" was the best picturized track in the film. The mellow lighting and the warehouse set, blends surreally with the tune and kudos to Amala Paul for keeping in pace with Vijay for this short soundtrack, with her dance movements. "Thalapathy" is a sort of coming-age song, eulogizing the heroism and savior-nature of the hero, and has good props and detailing and few scenes thrown into the song duration to spice up mood. "Vaangana" is a cute, dance number and was colorfully set-up by R.K Naguraj, with intricate props . G.V Prakash also features in a surprising cameo role in this song. The background score is better in the second half, and G.V Prakash is showing marked improvements from film to film.

A.L Vijay, as mentioned earlier, is someone who churns slow and melodramatic films, with some sort of astuteness. He has experimented this time by imbibing his style into an action story, atypical of Vijay's choice. The experiment is unique and interesting but the doesn't keep us glued to our seats as the film languorously takes it's time to unravel. The first half, though light-hearted, does not serve any strong pertinence to the overall script and theme line of the story. But some shocking turn of events in the late first-half suddenly jolts us out of slumber and again catches our attention for a while. There is nothing new or daringly creative in terms of storyline and script as A.L Vijay has been heavily inspired from particular films done by Mani Ratnam and Ram Gopal Varma, and has also rehashed some of Vijay's earlier films' story-lines ! But what might work for some section of audience, is the treatment and presentation of A.L Vijay, who handles his characters and scrip quite well. His directorial skills is of no question. Only the ability of in-depth and strong script-writing which is a cause of concern. Dialogues are particularly "old-fashioned" and the climax is not so engaging, though it has been well executed and shot by Nirav.

'Thalaivaa' - A decent watch with very less logic-defying "masala" elements, though it is an average commercial entertainer. A fairly higher rating, just for the production values.


Ratings: 3/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL