THAGARAARU

AARU OF BLOOD - TAHAGARAARU

A film like Thagaraaaru is like Thirunelveli Halwa to a reviewer. It really gives him enough and more ammunition to do a postmortem in the literal sense as to how not to make a film. I really wonder as to why an experienced production house like Cloud Nine so easily falls prey to such blatantly avoidable traps while making a film. When a production house of repute invests millions in making a film they should necessarily have an excellent internal and external team to wet the raw scripts, make necessary changes to cater to the audience they have in mind. Even a ‘Masala’ film like Thagaraaru is no exception to this cardinal rule. Cloud Nine has probably made an emotional issue (Arul Nidhi) to cloud their decision making in making such a mess of a movie!

I would now like to share with you my experience in watching the film THAGARAARU.   

Let me start with the films back story: - The film has been produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri & Vivek Rathnavel. The man at the helm Ganesh Vinayaac is the director of the film. It has Arulnithi and Poorna playing the lead roles, supported by Jaiprakash, Pawan, Tarun Shatriya, Mayilsamy, Murugadoss, Bava Lakshmanan, Aruldoss etc.  

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play) The story is the usual Tamil masala set in Madurai (acceding to the producers sentiments). It focuses on the conflict between true love and friendship on one side, revenge and vendetta on the other side. It has the usual “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”, “Deiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Thookkuda Avanai”, “pottu thalluda ivanai”, “edura avan sangai” (adams apple) etc. The Kollywood Samurai, the legendary ‘Aruval’ (Sickle) is used with aplomb to draw blood from every other person in the film but unlike the Samurai it is never sheathed. The infused bloody twist in the climax is supposedly the highlight of this endless masala caper but the climax is a bloodless coup!

The director is obviously an avid Tamil film buff. The hero of the film, Saravanan, is a replicated mould of the character, Parithiveeran. Arulnithi is the innocent maverick on the inside but crude and tough on the exterior. The heroine is suspense filled milder version of Sriya Sarin in “Thimuru” and Bhavana in “Arya”. The film also has visible shades of Subramaniapuram, Run, and ThoongaNagaram etc to lend more variety. The hero and his friends, all orphans, are engaged in small time thievery. They use all the innovative methods in ‘the book of Chennai thievery’ to rob and steal from locked and vacant houses. They are so daring and impartial that they neither spare the local police nor the local don. The hero then gives one coy look at the heroine (Poorna) and turns into a love sick whimpering pussy cat. The heroine initially thwarts the hero (Run sentiment) but then reciprocates in all earnestness. I will not reveal the rest, not because I don’t want to, but honestly there is nothing more to reveal. Why in god’s name do these villains come one by one to get bashed up by the hero, why does the brave but stupid cop always lands up alone to get bashed up by everyone around, why are there so many baddies loitering all over the place and even the one good man in the film is a baddie. There is so much blood that one day even the Bay of Bengal may red! I implore upon directors and producers to please spare some thought to the average viewer who is paying good money to watch a film!

Acting: - I urge Arulnithi to hereafter prudently choose scripts after careful thought, bearing in mind his clear height advantage and phenomenal screen presence. He should stop shaking his head repeatedly to showcase emotions like coyness and gullibility. His voice modulation should improve as it develops a rather nasal tone when the pitch increases and dangerously borders on femininity.  He has talent and an eagerness to improve as seen from Mouna Guru to Thagaraaru but the scripts he chooses are so stereo typed. Poorna, on the other hand, has done her bit to enhance the shallow story line. She plays a major part in the infused climax which should augur well for her to grab meaty roles in future. The humorous ‘Subramaniapuram’ friends are the serious ‘Thagaraaru’ friends with a major part of their vagabond presence in TASMAC. Jaiprakash has now taken over from Prakash Raj as the official collar flicking don of Tamil cinema. Aruldass is the ugly, bad and the good villain. Poorna’s mother is once again the stereotyped nagging mother. The rest are all the “Deiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, Eiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Edungada Sangai, Pottu Thallungada” Aruval-in-hand-Adiyals who roam all over the hundreds of cinema screens all over Tamilnadu.  Let me now move on to the technicians:-

Technicians:- The DOP Dillraj has used the camera well and in parts even excelled and enhanced the visual quotient of the film without which the film would have catapulted into oblivion. In fact the opening shot of zooming in on the location of the plot created an expectation but the shoddy screen prevents any further showcasing of his talent. In spite of so many characters effecting bloody cuts in the film, the editor Suresh has managed the cuts very well and has effectively decreased the lags which could have made the film a total torture. Dillip Subbarayan has handled the stunts using the typical Kollywood in what I term as the ‘punching bag’ formula – when the hero hits you fly into oblivion only to reappear magically to get hit again and again. The sickles, pipes, sticks, breaking of glass, tables, furniture, windshield etc can be seen to your heart’s content. The hero and the villains can be effectively used to demolish anything in this universe!

Music:-  The music director Dharan Kumar has used all the nuances required to fill in for the lack of story and screen play. The “Nanba Nanba” song to highlight the bonding and friendship blends well with the choreography. The rerecording by Praveen Sathya fills the noise quotient needed for this genre.

Left right & Centre:-

Rather than voicing my opinion I decided to turn to the person on my left and he answered as only an avid, discerning Tamil film viewer can “ Too! Too! lengthy, saar! Dragging, saar! Orey violence, not a family subject”.  I had no one on my right or centre this time to invite further comments.

Pro: - Those who are ardent fans of the genre ‘MASALA’!

Con: - Mediocrity continues to rule Tamil Cinema.

Bottom Line:-  The Hero and the Sickle are seldom separated!

Until next time,

Director Haricharan