The Mani Ratnam references come soon enough in Ivan Thanthiran , directed by Kannan, an erstwhile assistant of the veteran filmmaker. The hero is named Shakti (Shalini’s name in Alaipayuthe ). There’s a Nayagan reference early in the film. There are three important sequences that happen in... a railway station. RJ Balaji jokes with the ‘Mr Chandramouli’ phrase from Mouna Raagam . He’s doing it outside the heroine’s house — one that is tastefully designed, much like the residences shown in OK Kanmani . I could go on.
But Kannan is not too interested in exploring the Ratnamesque — except maybe during the surprisingly-mature romance portions — but travels along a path that filmmakers like Murugadoss have traversed quite successfully in the past. It is unfamiliar zone — with Gautham Karthik playing an engineering college dropout who stumbles into an engineering college scam — but Kannan shows promise. That might be because he has a fairly engaging story to tell. Shakti (Gautham Karthik) is one of those Ritchie Street computer mechanics who has an easy fix for all technological problems. He is, in his own words, a ‘reverse engineer’ and that’s established quite early, when he’s helping out the police find a computer file that they’ve not been able to track.
It might be a low-paying job (we see him live in a small house in the last floor of an apartment – with a dog for company) but Shakti is quite happy.
- Director: Kannan
- Cast: Gautham Karthik, Shraddha Srinath, RJ Balaji
- Storyline: An engineering dropout gets embroiled in an education scam
His demands are reasonable — there’s a ₹23,000 charge that he wants for an entire CCTV camera setup he’s fixed at a politician’s place. He’s denied that amount. He wants to get even.
That’s good fodder for a commercial masala film but thankfully, Ivan Thanthiran wants to do other things – and makes it a battle between brain and brawn. Shakti uses his knowledge of computers and technology to outwit the powerful politician he’s up against. There are mentions of routers and tracking devices.
All that might be a little high-brow for the masses, but for them, there’s RJ Balaji who’s always goofing around. He gets no laugh-worthy gags, but instead, gets the opportunity of his lifetime to outbeat his ‘historical’ jallikattu speech — when he launches into a one-minute tirade against IT employees, only to redeem himself a few scenes later when he speaks for them. All this is a little preachy, no doubt, but it ought to make for some terrific connect with the just-out-of-college, meme-posting urban youngster.
Even the romance works to a large extent; there’s one scene in which leading lady Shraddha Srinath (she plays Asha) is referred to as a ‘semma ponnu’. It’s not with respect to her looks or physique, but to her earnestness in convincing some higher-ups of Shakti's talent. It’s a little thing but the fact that I could remember this in a thriller is something...and that’s why Ivan Thanthiran works.
