Thalaivan Thalaivii Review- Relevant Conflict with Minimal Emotions and More Entertainment!

PUBLISHED DATE : 25/Jul/2025

Thalaivan Thalaivii Review- Relevant Conflict with Minimal Emotions and More Entertainment!

Thalaivan Thalaivii Review- Relevant Conflict with Minimal Emotions and More Entertainment!

Ashwin Ram  


Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menen get married hurriedly amidst family hurdles. After the wedding, gradually there arose a gap between them. How their families get together in a public space to unite them both back forms the crux of the story.

 

 

Writing/ Direction: The film starts by establishing the limitless characters one by one in the director’s own style. The story carries the same structure we saw in Kadaikutty Singam and Namma Veettu Pillai, a big happy family breaks after a set of conflicts and how they unify at the end. More than the characters being established in a quick succession, most of them don’t really have any unique traits to register themselves strongly. The initial situations felt rushed, thankfully things settle and get a lot better after the lead’s wedding. The key scenes are situated in a restaurant, the starting point of the conflict takes place here which is superbly staged and filmed. But the eventual world building that happens within the family are conveyed as rapid moments without letting them grow on us. The happy times of the couple are presented through song montages in a relishing manner, despite that their separation creates no impact as the reasons displayed are way too generic. The leads badly want to get back together, but their personal ego and how their families play games around it is shown well. The treatment is overly cinematic, squeezing the space for drama and that results in translating no big sentimental values. The trademark Pandiraj stamp of emotional monologues is completely missing, rather he has focused on giving unique names to the artists and showing them off with separate cards on-screen. Also, he has taken the crowd factor for granted, which has always been his forte, rather than keeping it as a simple family flick, forcing in a lot of people into the frame who are irrelevant for the situations. However the film is pretty engaging on the whole due to the timing jokes and dialogue humour. Whenever there is a dip in the flow, comedies that are genuinely laughable appear to be the saviour. The narrative does not take the relevant subject too seriously and being in a light-hearted zone is advantageous for the rollicking-fun final stretch.

 

Performances: Vijay Sethupathi shines in many areas, especially the romantic portions where he looks lively. But too loud at times and he just keeps yelling during the arguments. Nithya Menen on the other hand plays her role perfectly, the silence in her performance and the enthusiasm in her presence are on the right level. Amidst the infinite number of supporting artists, Chemban Vinod Jose and Deepa Shankar have done superbly and also they both take part in the integral part of the conflict. Weak villain role for RK Suresh’s and there is no clue whatsoever behind his enmity. The rest of the actors within and outside the families are dummy as they don’t have much to contribute to the drama. It is always delightful when Yogi Babu’s jokes work, thankfully he does well here and takes good care of the entertainment aspect. Sendrayan’s role is silly, he brings in a namesake seriousness which doesn’t help the film in any manner.

 

Technicalities: Powered by a skillful technical team, the quality of the outcome gets a great boost. Santhosh Narayanan’s songs are instantly likeable and the way they are picturized is cute, and helps to form a natural chemistry between the lead pair. Background score suits the tone of the narrative, leaving a good amount of breathing space amidst the noise. Sukumar’s camera work is an important asset to the film, the colourful visuals never exceed the tonality, the crowd is captured with such clarity and we get the temptation to eat Parotta through the magic of his lenses. Pradeep E. Ragas time and again proves why he is a champ in the business, many transitions are smartly done with proper plan while filming itself, and presenting a film of this scale tightly in just 140 minutes is not easy. Many unwanted fight sequences and the stunt team do not help in making anything special out of it too.

 

Verdict:  A film with equal hits and misses, though the emotions land flat due to the rushed storytelling.  Pandiraj delivers an engaging, feel-good family drama where Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menen shine. The film’s core strength is its comedy, which works big time and keeps us entertained


THALAIVAN THALAIVII - Relevant Conflict with Minimal Emotions and More Entertainment!


Rating - 3/ 5.

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