All that glitters..

Thangalaan felt like our Indian contingent's performance in the recently concluded Olympics 2024 - there were some world-class performers and performances but somehow we ended up in 4th place in a lot of categories. 

Among actors, I'm thankful for the rare portrayal of an Englishman from colonial times in an exploitative situation in an Indian movie- who is not a caricaturish villain with a heart the size of a soybean. Unlike his Indian assistant who just yells at the labourers, Clement has been fleshed out better and the range of emotions he goes through is palpable..but...

The electric stand-out performance by Malavika, whose terrific screen presence as the sorceress Aarathi is commendable and it's enigma stays still the end. She looked absolutely convincing as a deadly warrior who can torment her opponents at both the mind and body level..  but..

The ever dependable Vikram who has certainly given 200% while you are hoping that he just gives 100%. One is reminded of his various performances from the past and all his passion has spilt into the screen, its almost like he did time-travel to observe village characters of mid 18th century..but..

Every actor - small and big seems to have been hydrated with SivajiGanesan-flavoured Redbull and each of them were secretly told by the director that "If you nail this role, a national award for best actor, best supporting actor is waiting for you", and they all believed it. Therefore they only portray extreme emotions, either celebrating important events and life in a joyous rural society OR feeling down in the dumps with frequent cries of desperation and prayers to the almighty to save them all. Never a dull moment in their lives, so much dramatic performances, .. but.

The story had immense potential to be really uplifting, BUT (the biggest 'but' ) looks like Pa Ranjith could not decide at the end if it's a tale of hope or exploitation and this confusion seems to prevail in most parts of the movie and reaches the audience too. The incredible scenes showing multi-generational conflict are visually well produced but they are edited away too fast to remain etched in our memories. I now wish someone like Mari Selvaraj wrote the screenplay and directed the movie while Ranjith was in charge of story, dialogues and production. 

Overall we have a fine movie which aimed for the heroic last ball sixer by our favourite batsman to win the match, but gets caught by a tall fielder just near the boundary! However the crew who might win some awards are the ones you never see on screen - the technicians- for make-up, for art direction, for period costumes, for lighting - some terrific climax scenes and for visual and sound effects especially when Aarathi and the Nagas are around. 

I really wanted to like the movie, but I wished they didn't try this hard to be liked.