Thiruvannamalai

When I requested my friend to accompany me for a film named ‘Thiruvannamalai’, he asked, who is the actor? I told, Arjun, his immediate response was a screaming sound telling ‘6 songs + 6 fights will be the pattern, he showed his disinterest. Though I didn’t argued, I put it in my mind and thought about Arjun's new releases; I found that the actor is not having a big hit in the recent past to project like ‘Muthalvan’.

But I showed my interest to this project due to a couple of reasons. The first name is the production banner Kavithalaya, owned by the director K.Balachander. He has given many serious films, many of them were hits. Before going to the next name, I will mention some names like ‘Thiruppachi’, ‘Sivagasi’, ‘Thiruppathi’, ‘Dharmapuri’, ‘Pazhani’ etc…What do you feel, don’t you smell some resemblance in these names. They are all names of different places in Tamilnadu. At the same time, they are all names of some tamil films released in the last 5-6years. The director behind those films is Perarasu, who happened to be the creator of ‘Thiruvannamalai’ also.

From the first scene itself, I was aware of the story. The hero is introduced through a quarrelling by exchanging words with the villain MLA (Saikumar, kannada actor). Thereafter followed by a song and fight. I thought the assumption of my friend was right. Due to the arrogant behavior of the hero, his mother takes him to a saint in Thiruvannamalai. The biggest surprise is that the swamiji is also Arjun (double role) in the same appearance, a red dhoti in place of jeans. When the saint tries to give advice, the other one asks him to take his place by asking questions. Here also the usual cliché happens, both the heroes interchange their positions and in the end the villain is being destroyed by them together.

Pooja Gandhi, who acted in ‘Kokki’ is the heroine here. Sreekanth Deva’s songs are repetitive and they are easily forgettable. Action King Arjun’s action scenes directed by Anal Arasu is not the best. The humor created by the hero and his companions like Karunas, Vayyapuri etc is below standard. There is no logic and depth in the storyline. The faith put by the producers were not fulfilled evidently by the writer-director Perarasu.

Can B or C class audiences withstand a film like ‘Thiruvannamalai’…? It is a doubtful question.

Rating : 1.5 / 5