Thaamirabharani

While director Hari started off very strongly with Thamizh and Saamy, he did not live up to that initial promise with his subsequent films. Though he seemed to get back some of his old touch in Ayyaa, he definitely hit rock-bottom with the crude and violent Aaru. But he makes amends by returning to the village milieu in Thaamirabharani. He captures the lives of two families at war well enough though for us, the feeling of having seen it all before is unavoidable.

Bharani(Vishal) lives with his uncle(Prabhu) and thinks the world of him. The family's arch business rivals are Shakuntala(Nadiya) and her brother(Nasser). When Bharani thinks that Shakuntala's daughter Banu(Banu) is trying to make him fall for her as part of a bigger plan to besmirch his family's reputation, he plans to insult her. But the act has bigger repercussions that drive a deeper wedge between the two families.

Films set in villages always involve two warring families constantly trying to upstage one another and so the proceedings in Thaamirabharani have a very familiar feel to them as Prabhu and Vishal repeatedly clash with Nasser, Nadiya and Vijayakumar. The characters involved are all stock characters(the respected elder on the 'good' side, the villain on the 'bad' side who wants to keep the enmity festering for personal gain, the old woman who wants to see the families united, etc.) in such films too. So the film rarely presents something new.

Thaamirabharani is all about conflicts. With a large number of characters on either side, two or more of them seem to be fighting, either verbally or physically, most of the time. Though this makes the movie quite loud, it also gives the movie a lot of energy. We might simply be seeing different facets of the same conflict but things happen and so the movie moves along at a good pace. Some of the words thrown around in the arguments are raw enough to make us flinch but that adds some realism and provides a strong reason for the continuing enmity.

The big twist in the story doesn't come as a very big surprise considering the characters involved. But because of what it exposes, the rest of the story becomes quite predictable. We know exactly who will be still standing at the end of the film and in a film like this, that takes away a lot of the involvement. It also points to a tame ending that doesn't go too well with rawness of some of the earlier proceedings (again, as in Ayyaa, it is a toss-up between a violence-laden climax and a soft one and Hari has chosen the latter route). But the small revelation at the end is a good surprise and ends the film on a nice note.

'Ganja' Karuppu has now graduated to having his own comedy track but is annoying most of the time. The confusion that arises because of the dog sharing his name isn't funny the first time around and so, really irritates when it is used repeatedly. His segments unrelated to the use of his name(like the incident at the police station) don't fare much better and are silly and unfunny.

Vishal, not surprisingly, already seems stereotyped. He tries some comedy but it is not very effective and he really needs to work on it. No such problems with the stunts though as there are some impressive leaps and kicks scattered around. Debutant Banu is definitely on the flabby side and rumors about her looking the same as Nayantara are way off base. But she delivers a competent performance. Prabhu is dignified and the same goes for Nadiya. Nasser reminds us of Devar Magan in both getup and performance. Thaaliye Thevaiyilla... is a nice melodious number from Yuvan Shankar Raja.