THOTTAL THODARUM MOVIE REVIEW

Cable Sankar, a film critic who is also known for his writings on cinema business, makes his foray into the industry as a director in Thottal Thodarum, produced by Thoovar Chandrashekar. 

 

Thottal Thodarum borders on the genre of romantic thriller where heroine Arundhati (Veluthu Kattu and Sundattam) working in a call centre, falls in love with Thaman (Sattam Oru Iruttarai fame) a HR executive, and later voluntarily gets entangled in a situation. What happens further on this self-inflicted mess, is what the film is all about.

 

Thottal Thodarum has two different tracks, one on the romantic side and the other about a network of henchmen involved in orchestrated crime. Cable Sankar converges these two unrelated components in the second half. 

 

One of the film’s highlights is its duration of two hours and six minutes and the director uses this crisp time span to narrate his tale. Lead artists do their jobs adhering to the script and come across natural in most frames. Major strength to their performance comes from the voice-over artists (Deepa Venkat for the heroine) who bring in an assured dimension to the main characters. 

 

The film opens with Pyramid Natarajan a minister, getting involved in an accident on the highway which is followed by the introduction of the hero and heroine. Further on, both these tracks are taken forward with the story slowly unraveling. 

 

The problem with Thottal Thodarum is its numerous characters and the hasty way in which they are brought to culmination at the climax. Few solutions could have been a little lucidly explained. The character of the heroine is inconsistent when she comes across too sugary sometimes and on other occasions too forthright and harsh for no valid reason. Her reactions are too contradicting especially in the second half. On the other hand, hero Thaman’s characterization to a larger extent is homogenous. 

 

In the age of quick connect with the world through virtual media, it is implausible that the couple would not be able to see each other’s face for an extended period of time. This creates a deja vu of sorts of Agathiyan’s Kaadhal Kottai which is also reiterated by the hero’s friend Balaji in the film. Despite the lead artists continuing their tryst with each other only through phone, their first meeting, which actually should have been done with some zing, turns out quite flat. And also their equation of friendship and romance seems to be oscillating, whimsical and vague.

 

Through Balaji as the hero’s friend who is weak on women, Cable Sankar tries to bring in some laugh moments. But the same old dialogue of ‘indha ponnungalae ippadi thaan’ and many oneliners about women and friendship are already done to death in many films and are quite exasperating. There are also some characters like an inspector and a friend of the hero who suddenly appear from nowhere and also vanish in the same way they made their entry. Same thing goes with Arundhathi’s father, step mom and step brother whose story in fact was the foundation for the second half, but gets conveniently forgotten in the second half. Arundhathi who is shown as a brooding and caring sister for her step brother seems to have gone on an amnesiac trip in the concluding segments. 

 

Music is by debutant Shivan and camera is by Vijay Armstrong and they have carried out their responsibilities in tune with the script. 

 

Although the film does not have huge challenges, it still does not make a strong impact and turns out to be a harmless affair.