Cast: Mohanlal, Shobana, Prakash Varma, Binu Pappu, Bharatiraja, Vijay Sethupathi, Kalpana Thomas Mathew, Amritha Varshini, Farhaan Faasil, Aarsha Chandini Baiju
Crew:
Written by K. R. Sunil, Tharun Moorthy
Cinematography by Shaji Kumar
Music by Jakes Bejoy
Editing by Nishadh Yusuf, Shafeeque V. B.
Directed by Tharun Moorthy
Produced by M. Renjith
Mohanlal is one of the biggest superstars of Indian Cinema based in Malayalam. The star has not been able to deliver the kind of knockout films that we got accustomed to watching from him, over the years. His recent releases like Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham, Alone, Malaikottai Vaaliban, Barroz 3D have been underwhelming at best. L2: Empuraan, did get a huge opening but not the level of success anticipated. Now, he has come up with Thudaram and Shobana acted as his pair, after a long time. Let's discuss about the film in detail.
Plot:
Benz aka Shanmugham (Mohanlal) drives an old ambassador and he is only one to still stick to such dated vehicle. He used to work as a stuntmen under his master Palani Sir (Bharatiraja) and due to an accident, he became taxi driver. As the black ambassador is a gift from his master, he loves it more than his life. His wife Lalitha (Shobana) runs a tight shop at the home and he is happily scared about her short temper. One day, he hits his son Pavi (Thomas Mathew) for taking his car without intimation.
Pavi stops talking to him and an upset Benz tries to rectify this. Suddenly, he gets a call that Palani sir passed away and when he returns, he finds his car being seized by Police. He tries to convince SI Benny (Binu Pappu) but SI takes it to his ego to not release the car. Upon CI George (Prakash Varma)'s insistence, SI gives the car but George starts using Benz's car and asks him to help them dump a body. Unable to comprehend the guilt, Benz finds out that the body is actually his son Pavi's. Why did police kill his son? How does Benz take his revenge? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis:
The movie starts off brilliantly with Mohanlal, after a long time, appearing in a simpleton role and bringing his vintage comic timing to the fore. The intense, massy star gives way to this simpleton character to shine in the first 45 minutes. But then, the director slides into using the usual mass troupes with the star in full flow than the actor. This is where the movie looses its grip and falls completely into regular zone.
Mohanlal tries to salvage the situation with his massy image and larger-than-life on-screen persona. But the writing is so basic in the second hour that it feels like Drishyam has been re-imagined in a massy film style. While that is not a bad thing, more imaginative writing could have helped the film to really sustain novelty it promised in the beginning portions.
Once it unveils the "twist", you tend to see the old school writing breaking into the film. From there on, we feel like the obvious being dragged to bits. There are chances making this bits also novel but they resort to taking the obvious route. Director Tharun Moorthy showcased great imagination in starting portions with character introductions but they go into un-realistic territory as the movie progress.
Trying to make a "real" looking big movie that also goes into mass hero worship mode is tricky and doesn't really bloom. The problematic things lie in mentioning few things at a random which needed time for us to breathe and digest. In trying to focus on them as twists, the makers did not do as good a job as Sookshmadarshini. The movie needed a lot more focused and inventive approach to make it more than just another Mohanlal starrer with "Drishyam-esque" premise.
Bottomline:
Mohanlal saves this thriller that losses itself into many incohesive bits as we progress.
Rating: 2.5/5
Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this review are personal views/opinions shared by the writer and organisation does not hold a liability to them.