When an actor is bent on establishing himself as a super hero and the director is willing to pander to his whims, the result is bound to be on the lines of ‘Thambikku Indha Ooru’ (U). The Bharath-Badri combo travels on the beaten track of a boy-meets-girl romance and predictable villainy. Needless to add that the girl’s dad is evil and the boy’s past is steeped in mystery. The saving graces of ‘Thambikku …’ are just a few – Prabhu’s performance, Ranjith’s ease as a villain and Bharath’s footwork in that order.
Akil (Bharath) is a businessman in Singapore. It’s love at first sight for him when he sees Divya (Sana Khan) at a mall. Meanwhile he gets to know that he’s an adopted child of his parents and flies down to Chennai to know his past. But once in the city he seems keener on following his sweetheart, who is also back from Singapore, than on finding his father. Matters move at their own speed and by the time the scheming villain is exposed, flashbacks unravel the true tale and the lovers unite you are exhausted.
Bharath looks good, dances well and has his expressions right, but his choice of roles doesn’t help him put his pluses to good use. Front benchers may be his target audience but he can still avoid clichés. And these days, mass heroes seem to think it is imperative to go on and on about their land and linguistic leanings, so much so the dialogue in such sequences sounds too contrived.
‘TIO’ takes you to the films of the 1970s when a moustache or a goatee was enough for a hero to become absolutely unrecognisable – none can see through the ‘disguise’! Forty years later it’s agonising to see the same ploy being used and the sense of déjà vu is too much to take. The other sore point is the comedy. It’s time Vivekh does some serious revamping of his style that is becoming more scatological than humorous. At best the so called witticisms evoke a grimace. And how long can a comedian make people laugh by mimicking other actors and their roles? M.S. Bhasker as Golconda Kondal Rao is initially funny. Later the laboured attempts to tickle irk. Sana Khan looks charming -- the run-of the mill role expects her to be just that.
Is it sorrow that makes Prabhu sport the flowing, odd black garb almost throughout? The costume appears too alien – yet whatever the limitations, his enactment has always been commendable. ‘Thambikku …’ isn’t an exception.
Writer-director Badri’s two earlier films ‘Veeraappu’ and ‘Aindhaam Padai’ showed him as a filmmaker with potential, because despite formula ingredients, they were engaging. But ‘Thambikku Indha Ooru,’ his third, is a far cry from what you thought he is capable of.