‘Thimiru Pudichavan’ review: a tedious and almost forgettable film

‘Thimiru Pudichavan’ is an overlong, over-simplistic and over-acted potboiler that disrespects its audience

A still from the sets of ‘Thimiru Pudichavan’

The kid who played young Ajith Kumar in Yennai Arindhaal , coincidentally, gets a similar moment in Thimiru Pudichavan , where he has to choose between good and evil. Here, he plays the character Ravi, who chooses the latter and predictably so. His brother Murugavel is a thimiru pudicha (arrogant)police officer who cannot stand the word kettavan (a bad man). Ravi leaves Murugavel for his overprotective nature and lands up as a petty criminal in villain Padma’s (Sai Dheena) gang. After two years, Murugavel chances upon his brother in Chennai, where he’s an established criminal.

At least on the surface, Thimiru Pudichavan encompasses one of the greatest masala troupes -- the rivalry between brothers. But the film pays a pathetic homage to ‘80s cinema that popularised this genre, where the hero has to deal with conflict both within and outside his family.

Thimiru Pudichavan

• Cast: Vijay Antony, Nivetha Pethuraj, Sai Dheena and Lakshmi Ramakrishnan
• Director: Ganesha
• Storyline: An honest police officer Murugavel does everything Tamil cinema stars typically do

Part of the film moderately works if seen as an unintentional comedy of sorts. Murugavel is the kind of police officer who believes in changing things around him in a single song. He’s aided by Madonna (Nivetha Pethuraj), with a fake Chennai accent. Murugavel is also the kind of person who doesn’t think twice before professing his love for Madonna, just hours after an encounter kills his brother. But in the scene where he devours biryani , while taking a glimpse at his dead brother, the actor is at once emotional and subtle. Ravi models himself after Padma, who employees juvenile boys for his drug business. When Murugavel tries to rescue the other boys from Padma’s gang, the latter challenges Murugavel to break the brand he’s built around him. And the rest of the film centres solely on the cat-and-mouse between the hero and villain. At 160 minutes, Thimiru Pudichavan seems too long for a film that lacks seriousness. The director’s effort to write the most dishonest romantic track is one of the many narrative issues that hinders the film.

Vijay Antony isn't particularly known for his acting skills. In fact, a character in the film jokingly calls him ‘straight-faced’. But Antony has earned a reputation of picking reasonably good scripts, even if the characters were meant to be expressionless. By donning the khaki, the film gives validation to Vijay Antony, who’s no longer an actor, but a star.