Madurai based films, will never go dry in Tamizh cinema and 'Thagaraaru' joins the list of this "Madurai-genre". After a gap of two years, Cloud Nine Movies' Dhayanidhi Azhagiri has produced this film with his cousin Arulnithi, in the lead role. Arulnithi showed some promise with his previous ventures, 'Vamsam' and 'Mouna Guru'. Debutant Ganesh Vinaayac, who was removed unceremoniously from Elred Kumar's 'Muppozhuthum Un Karpanaigal' directs this flick, after assisting Silambarasan, Tharun Gopi and S.J Suryah. So, what does 'Thagaraaru' offers us 'differently' from the usual Madurai films ?
To put it bluntly, Arulnidhi is an awkward casting choice for the role of the protagonist's. The baby-faced assassin mould does not fit him well and his towering height and physique could have been put to good use. The director has not extracted the optimum level of output from his hero and the poor guy, suffers from weak screen presence. He needs to improve a lot of his dancing skills and dialogue delivery sense, as well. His buddies, played by Pawanji, Susile Kumar, and Murugadoss were befitting of their roles and performed well. Pawanji exerts force and Susile has good sense of dialogue delivery and emoting skills. Murugadoss, brings in the comic factor and has developed good timing sense. Poorna has a strong role, reminiscent of Sriya Reddy in 'Thimiru' (ironically, directed by the director's mentor, Tharun Gopi). The body language is familiar, the dialogue delivery is a tad different, but the only differentiating factor, are the short love portions and song sequences given to Poorna. Supporting cast such as Jayaprakash, Mayilsamy, Aruldas, Meenal and etc were wasted of their good acting capabilities and short screen timing.
The technical department, has come out with slick works. Ekadasi, Karunakaran and the director himself has taken care of the costume designing and they have done a commendable work, since most of the artistes, looked their roles. Dhilip Subbarayan's action choreography was good but has more a little bit dosage of violence and gore, atypical of Madurai-based, violent films. The climax fight sequence (a lengthy one), was well executed and choreographed. Rajeevan's production design, sufficed the needs of the script. The props were minimal, since plenty of the shots were done in real locations. The interiors of the heroine's home, was well set up. T.S Suresh's editing's was simply and fast, especially the climax. It was his editing which purely, maintained the suspense element in tact, to some extent. K. Dill Raj's cinematography was adequate. The rain shots were well taken, especially in the long-drawn out climax. And he has aptly used the close-u techniques, along with some low-angle shots, when ever necessary.
Dharan Kumar has taken care of the song compositions but the output was no where good as his previous albums. "Super Thirudan" is the introductory song of the hero and his rogue buddies, which had plenty of cuts and shot in real locations, in and around Madurai. The "Thagaraaru Theme Music" was used in a single situational sequence, and was shot on Arulnidhi, against the backdrop of a wide, temple water tank. "Thiruttu Payale" was shot on the lead pair and had plenty of montages interspersed along with choreographed shots, which were mostly taken in actual locations, again. "Nanba Nanba", is another situational song, shot against a somber backdrop and had flashback montages along with the present event, chronicling the friendship of the gang of thieves. The background score has been handled Praveen Sathya and he has delivered a good score, especially in the second half, when the intensity of the screenplay picks up.
It is pretty obvious that Ganesh Vinaayac has got his inspiration from few other 'Madurai films' such as the classic 'Subramaniapuram', 'Thoonga Nagaram' and 'Thimiru. There's nothing much exciting in the film, except for the initial opening sequences, which presented us a promising start. But eventually the film peters out with a poor screenplay, which disengages the excitement factor from the suspense element of the script, due to poor continuity. For those who like to draw up conspiracy theories while watching a film, the end suspense might not be greatly shocking, since you would have guessed it, pretty easily. The comedy portions fell face flat, entirely. The romance sequences, is lacking in romance in its entirety and leads to a lack of credentiality. The entire climax is a guessing game in total, but the its a tad too lengthy than it should be. What could have been a pulsating narration, boils down to mere Tamizh cinema melodramatic moments, which brings down the originality factor of the director. His direction is not entirely convincing, especially with sub-par performances from the lead pair and boring dialogues.
'Thagaraau' - Has its fair share of suspense in the climax, but that's about it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Mouna Guru, was a making progress silently with Arulnidhi as the protagonist. The "Vamsam" star was in need of a hit because of the poor outing of his previous commercial "Udhayan". Backed by his home production, this movie is directed by newcomer Santhakumar and has some good technicians behind the camera. As not much expectations were placed on this movie, the same factor has worked out for the success of it, by emerging as the dark horse/silent winner in the box office trade, thanks to the neat work done by the crew.
Arulnidhi shows potential once again here as his performance was quite good and his dialogue delivery was in sync with the character he portrayed. If he works out more on his expressions and body language, he has a very good future in Tamizh cinema. Heroine Iniya has nothing much to do here, other than be the love interest of the hero, but it's not the 'sake-of-having-one' kind of a role. All the other character artistes like Krishnamoorthy, Madhu, K.Balakrishnan, Sujatha and etc did their roles well but the real scene stealers were John Vijay as the corrupted police officer and Uma Riyaz Khan as a pregnant investigative officer. Both were fantastic with their subtle expressions and body language and this movie will stand as one of their best ever roles in their entire career. Mouna Guru is one of the rare films which has its entire cast dishing out decent and non-overboard acting.
The film has some decent technical works. Thaman's music is a plus for this film with "Yenna Idhu" and "Anamika" songs being the best of the lot. His background work is very much commendable and one of his better works and nearly as on par with his best "Eeram". The usage of silence in the climax scenes worked very well in enhancing the thrilling effect. Dhilip Subbarayan's stunts were very natural and minimally used, making it more realistic to watch. A.A Devaraj's production work and Mahesh Muthuswamy's camera work was very effective and well done. Raja Mohammed could have trimmed some portions of to speed up the screenplay, especially in the first half.
The real hero of this movie is the director Santhakumar. One of the best aspects of the film is the usage of characters. Nearly all characters had a role in moving the screenplay forward and even the antagonists were well used and not as just 'punching-bag' for the protagonist. In-fact there is not even a single scene showing heroism and each character has its own shades and color which makes it more believable. It is difficult in Tamizh cinema for directors to come up with decent enough thriller which can hold the attention of audiences till the very end, without compromising few factors. The events starts to unfold one by one and each scene were well executed with no nonsense approach. The unpredictable small twists and turns holds the interest of the audiences. Some might find the screenplay to be little slow in the first half, but it's just an minor issue.
Mouna Guru is a decently well made thriller which never fails to get the appreciation of viewers. Hoping to see more classy and better work from director Santhakumar.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
