Tirupathi

After two movies based on personal vendetta, director Perarasu throws a little social consciousness into the mix in his third film Tirupathi. So, while the hero is still on a mission at a personal level, he also attempts to provide the antidote to one of the wrongs prevalent in society. Not that this makes much of a difference to the quality of the movie. It is just as crass, crude and commercial as his earlier movies though the second half, which focuses solely on action, fares relatively better than the vulgar first half.

Tirupathi(Ajith) runs a sound service shop, providing audio sets and pre-recorded songs for functions and other public events. Soori(Riyaz Khan), a minister's son is his close friend and Tirupathi doesn't hesitate to do his dirty work for him. When a doctor's greed leads to tragedy in Tirupathi's life, he goes after the doctor. When Soori stands up for the doctor for his own reasons, Tirupathi turns against his friend also.

Tirupathi makes us wish that Perarasu could be banned from including romance in his movies. Ajith's romance with Sadha plays absolutely no part in the film and Sadha's role is completely expendable. I mean, she is not even kidnapped so that she can be saved by Ajith nor is she used by the villains to threaten him. But inspite of this, Perarasu is compelled to include her to make Tirupathi a complete masala film and gives us one of the most distasteful romances in a long time. The whole romance is developed around something that needs to be kept completely private and treated with decency but instead, is brought out into the open and treated in a vulgar manner.

Once the personal vendetta part is set up, the movie completely pushes romance to the background to focus on action(Sadha appears in only 1 song sequence in the entire second half). And Perarasu proved in Tiruppaachi that he is a halfway decent filmmaker when it comes to picturizing action. As the film shifts to a one-on-one battle of wits between Ajith and Riyaz Khan, Ajith's plans turn out to be a good mix of both brain and brawn. Though exaggerated and simplistic, they are based on some crowd-pleasing, good ideas (the way he uses a bomb and a pill to achieve one of his aims is especially clever). But Perarasu doesn't know when to stop and the climax drags on for way too long.

The tragedy in Ajith's life paves the way for the social angle to the film as he begins trying to get a new law passed. The law itself seems sensible and topical and adds some respect to the film. But Ajith doesn't make himself too likeable when he opts to go with his friend instead of his pregnant sister. And its not too convincing when Ajith and his family, after their tragedy, go to a play where Ajith ends up dancing on stage with Laila(she has an item number)!

One thing Perarasu did well in his earlier movies was provide a good buildup for his hero. But even that is lacking here. Ajith's entrance is disappointingly low-key and amateurishly picturized. His punchline lacks power too. Perarasu actually gives himself more buildup as he ill-advisedly appears as an auto driver and fights with some bad guys. He looks ridiculous as he shakes his hands and delivers punches and kicks and his monotonous dialog delivery doesn't help either. After seeing Perarasu here, we can say that S.J.Suryah has a serious contender for the title of 'The Most Egotistic Director'.

Apart from romance, the other thing Perarasu badly needs some training in is how to picturize song sequences. Sure Bharadwaj has delivered some unremarkable tunes but the director has no clue on how to present them on screen. The duets all have Ajith and Sadha(more the former than the latter) wear ridiculous costumes(big coolers, thick-lensed glasses, bell bottoms and floral-designed shirts, to name a few) and execute ridiculous steps in the name of dance. The song sequences in Tirupathi would make a non-smoker take up smoking just so he could take a cigarette break!

Ajith doesn't look as haggard as he did in Paramasivan but still has to put on some weight to look naturally healthy. But he looks more convincing mouthing all those threats and punchlines than before. Sadha looks good in the few scenes she is present. No one else in the cast really stands out and Riyaz Khan, 'Pyramid' Natrajan and Livingston fit their roles.