Thiruchitrambalam Review 

Ashwin Ram 

Thiruchitrambalam is directed by Mithran R Jawahar, with an ensemble cast of Dhanush, Nithya Menen, Raashi Khanna, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Prakash Raj, Bharathiraja, etc. The DnA combo is back as Anirudh is the music composer.

Premise

Dhanush is a food delivery boy and depicts the life of a 'Pazham'. Prakash Raj is his dad and things are not fine between them, after a dark incident in the past. How they bond back together forms the crux of the story.

Writing/ Direction

First and foremost, the conversations are very lively which makes the film relatable, well-written dialogues. Shot in live locations, the happenings are believable and nowhere artificial. We get to have a sense of empathy for Dhanush's character over the time and we get to connect and feel for his hardships as faces them. The other two strong supporting characters are Nithya Menen who plays D’s best friend and Bharathiraja who is D’s grandad. Their combination scenes with the central character Thiruchitrambalam have come out very well, especially in the first half. The entire first hour for that matter is engaging and doesn’t dip at any spot, in fact there are many memorable moments. The drama between D and his dad is good, the way their relationship reforms is fine too. There is an issue throughout the flick, we wonder where the story is leading towards. Although the drama is neat in some places, it fails to satisfy in the most important area which is the second half. The closure is kind of attained soon after the interval, the last 45 minutes or so travels on clueless note. The flow loses its fluency and it feels like everything is staged after a point. Priya Bhavani Shankar’s character seems like a needless addition, there won’t be any changes if her portions were chopped off. How the relationship between Dhanush and Nithya Menen evolves is shown in a dull manner, the weakest segment of the flick. The whole chapter is very artificially portrayed with convenient writing. If done well, the risky perspective would have been satisfying and acceptable.

Performances

The natural performer in Dhanush is back again and after so long his on-screen character is relatable, he underplays throughout and he must be appreciated for switching off the star tag. Nithya Menen covers up for him, she is loud, bold and extremely likeable in the film, she has owned the next-door-girl character and ruled the film. Raashi Khanna does a decent job in a cute little role, she is just a passing cloud and that’s it. Priya Bhavani Shankar fits well for the village girl role, but as said earlier, her portions are unwanted for the subject. Prakash Raj gets a neat role and he carries it with easing grace, doesn’t impact on a high level though. Following Nithya Menen, Bharathiraja is the secondary pillar of the film, his naughty old-age innocence and timing dialogues were delightful to watch, at the same time he gives that big people talk as well. 

Technicalities

Anirudh has set the bar so high that he couldn’t match this to his recent albums. However all the songs are very decent and he has made some fascinating improvisations in the main picture. He has good scope to score well with background score, he has understood the importance and composed accordingly, clap-worthy work indeed. Topical camera work by Om Prakash’s, he has captured the performances so well, admirable interior angles and he has presented the songs superbly too. The scene transitions are nice, but there are bunches that need to be scissored more, despite the film running for just 130 minutes, it does feel lengthy. Stunt Silva gets one scene to work on, the approach to go in a realistic way is fine, but the output isn’t convincing enough.

Bottomline

A slice of life flick with a neat first hour as the drama is set correctly, but the last hour is mostly tasteless, extends and runs for quite some time even after the core drama is gotten over.

Thiruchitrambalam - A Passable Light Hearted Outing

Rating: 2.75/5