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
'Jannal Oram' marks the comeback of Karu Palaniappan after his below average performance in 'Mandhira Punnagai'. Karu is known for his sensitive portrayal and family friendly milieu, apart from his last project. Backed by some of his favorite artistes, can 'Jannal Oram' bring back the success to Karu Palaniappan, a once-promising script and dialogue writer in Tamizh cinema ?
The film has a big cast of artistes, and everyone has some screen timing to stamp their marks. But unfortunately, the high number of artistes does not add value to the script. That's due to the average performances and lack of emotional content for each artistes to register their capabilities in the minds and hearts of viewers. R.Parthiban, as the rural, middle-aged Casanova, mouths his dialogues fluently in a different accent. Vemal, is pretty much in his comfort zone and gets to romance the heroine in songs and pull off some action sequences. Vidharth leaves a better impression on us, although his characterization was just a mere extension from the protagonist role he did in 'Mynaa', albeit with a twist. Among the ladies, both Poorna and Manisha Yadav have limited acting scope, though the latter had more screen timing. A gang of character artistes such as Ramana, Rajesh, Yuvarani, Ilavarasu, Santhana Bharathi, Sanjay Bharathi, Bala Singh, Sri Ranjani, Singampuli, Krishnamurthy and etc get to do their usual stuffs.
Dhilip Subbarayan's action choreography was apt for Vemal, Vidharth and Parthiban. It was not over the top, but not fiery, as well. Rajeevan's production design complemented the script very much. The rural house setup was apt for the milieu of the script, with relevant props. The village setup too looks very much believable. Simple, but neat work from one of the best ! Saravanaa, could have done better with the editing department. The proceedings in the second half moves at a snail's pace, and some trimming could have increased the tempo of the script. Arbhindu Saaraa, definitely owns the film, through his good cinematography works. The hill stations have been very aptly captured from his lenses and at the same time, Arbhindu maintained a natural look for the whole film, which is very much the style template of Karu Palaniappan's films. His experimentation with different angles or view-points of the bus, is commendable.
Vidyasagar, the trusted aide of Karu Palaniappan, disappoints us with below average song compositions. Though melodious, they don't capture your attention nor the interest, pretty much. "Athili Pathili" is the opening credits song, shot on the lead characters' bus' journey it makes in a day. The hilly terrains and lush greenery is a cool sight for the eyes. "Ennadi Ennadi" also has the bus as the backdrop, but the focus is on the characters this time and Vemal gets to woo Manisha in this song, shot with montages. "Unnai Paarkkama" was shot on Vemal and Manisha Yadav, against the backdrop of Athirappilly waterfalls and its surrounding lush and green forests. "Aasa Vacha" had a village festival backdrop, with apt props by Rajeevan for the production design side. The song also had separate shots of Vemal-Manisha and Sanjay-Poorna, interspersed into it. "Ela Malathoppu" is a situational song, and covered most of the lead characters' dark moments they were facing through. "Aatho Appatho" is a promotional song which was not used in the film. The song had the puppet play shot, as its backdrop. The background score was quite ordinary, for Vidyasagar's standards.
Though Karu Palaniappan has made this film, the script and screenplay does not belong to him, and its the first time Karu has attempted a remake film. 'Jannal Oram' is the official remake of the 2012 Malayalam film, 'Ordinary' which turned out to be a super-hit. The story was written by Sugeeth and screenplay by Nishad K.Koya and Manu Prasad, the makers of the original film. The problem with the film, is that it moves at a leisurely pace and the viewers could not muster what to expect from this film, even from half-way into it ! Karu, slowly introduces us to each characters one by one, and that proceeding had nothing novel in the methodology perspective. The first half was insipid, and the only thing which kept us watching were the dialogues, written by Sugunakumar K.E. There are a few sharp dialogues, atypical of Karu's film dialogues, but they are few and far between. There is an unexpected twist just before the climax, but it was far too late to save the film and was overtly stretched, as well. Karu Palaniappan, should have done more homework in fine tuning the original script, to suit the tastes and pace of a typical, 'good' Tamizh-film. Nevertheless, kudos to Karu for delivering a very clean film, which can be watched by anyone.
'Jannal Oram' - Below average showing from Karu Palaniappan. Where's the guy who made 'Parthiban Kanavu' ?!
Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
