Star Cast: Suriya, Priyanka Arulmohan, Sathyaraj, Saranya Ponvannan, Vinay Rai & Ensemble.
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Director: Pandiraj
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What’s Bad: That Suriya is slowly turning into Akshay Kumar with his choices and it isn’t a good thing. Also, who forcefully spoon-feeds emotions these days? Even Ekta Kapoor has gone subtle.
Loo Break: You will want to.
Watch or Not?: At your own risk. It is literally someone imagining what if we take Suriya from Jai Bhim and Suriya from Soorarai Pottru and put them into a blender. The concoction is not at all tasty.
Language: Tamil (with subtitles).
Available On: Netflix
Runtime: 148 Minutes
User Rating:
Kannabiran (Suriya) a righteous lawyer one fine day ends up killing 7 men. Why does he do that? Begins Etharkkum Thunindhavan. We understand that the powerful have brought hell to a rather happening town with their atrocities, and Kannabiran takes the charge to ‘cleanse’ his society.
The social drama is the genre that is the most in trend as we speak. Not that it is bad or doesn’t deserve to be where it is. But when filmmakers with a huge amount of money and a strong backing make movies pitching them as social satires that are confused with their own tonality, is where the genre gets exploited. Add to it Suriya and the wannabe approach to this product becomes crystal clear.
Etharkkum Thunindhavan is a story about the atrocities done against women in a region divided by two clans in the South of India. Writer-director Pandiraj introduces this set-up and a realm that once respected women and worshipped them. Cut to, one half of the region becoming cruel and started harassing their ladies overnight. The tone of the film is so confusing that you are confused about what it exactly wants to say. Is it connecting reality to mythology (like Karnan)? Is it pointing toward the atrocities not only in terms of caste but the gender? Which is the era the film is exactly set in?
The Suriya starrer begins from the end and takes the entire runtime to explain to you why the end. It shapes its leading man like he is some Romeo on the street busy showing his mastery in solving anything. Suddenly you are told he is a lawyer and a prestigious one. But that actually doesn’t create any impact on the story. He could be an engineer and it could all be the same. The urge to have Suriya because Jai Bhim worked and also make him a lawyer because ‘recall value’ is so discomforting and unsettling.
The humour is introduced at points where it is not supposed to be. The switch between the emotions is so sudden and abrupt that nothing makes sense after a point. Talking about sense, why does the bad man played by Vinay Rai look like he spends all his evenings in some Mexican town and not a rural village? He is so flat that he starts looking funny after a point.
There are many logical questions though. Why does the entire village look like technology is yet to touch them and the villain has a lab that is a low budget replica of NASA’s research centre? If Kannabiran kills those 7 men behind closed doors and makes sure no one knows what happened, who is giving live commentary about the number of kills to his mother? How does a computer plug off from the socket start burning after it is shot by a gun?
Suriya needs to stop doing films just because they give a message. The formula did work for the last two, but the latest is a classic misfire. The actor is so honest in his performance, that I felt bad when he broke out into not one but multiple dance numbers set in oblivion set up without a reason.
Priyanka Arulmohan goes through so a sudden and random transformation that she becomes off track after a point. So does everyone else involved.
Vinay Rai plays a bad guy who seems so brutal that even guys might want to button their shirts completely. But when he comes face to face with the hero, he is down in exactly 3 punches.
Pandiraj is so obsessed with his tale that he forcefully spoon-feeds emotions after a point. You don’t have the agency to decide what to feel. The climax is so weird that nothing makes sense. While it is shaped up to be moving and shattering, it only manages to trigger one emotion, WHAT? (in an upsetting way).
The music makes no impact.
People have a lot of expectations from Suriya who was almost in the race for the Oscars this year. But this is definitely not even close to the least expected things. Etharkkum Thunindhavan looks like a wannabe half baked movie that got lucky with the casting.
Etharkkum Thunindhavan released on 7th April, 2022 (OTT).
Share with us your experience of watching Etharkkum Thunindhavan.
Not into dramas? Check out our Dharmaveer movie review for an action-packed ride!
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