‘Pathu Thala’ movie review: Simbu sizzles, but this gangster drama lacks any real punch

Silambarasan TR in a nonetheless from ‘Pathu Thala’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

One of probably the most placing elements of filmmaker Narthan’s 2017 Kannada movie Mufti was the way it fleshed out a world of crime from the eyes of a cop despatched undercover to search out an notorious mafia don. From the start, the shadow of the crime lord, performed by Shiva Rajkumar, loomed giant over each single scene till his eventual grand look. Even earlier than we see him, he grew to become a fable, a ghost, a Godfather-like determine, and the anticipation was real.

In Mufti’s Tamil remake Pathu Thala, Silambarasan TR, as crime lord AG Raavanan a.okay.a AGR, will get a grand entrance midway into the movie, but director Obeli N Krishna chooses to point out him in a shot proper firstly. Some mystique stays. And although the story nonetheless follows the undercover cop Sakthivel (Gautham Karthik), who infiltrates AGR’s gang, a lot of how he goes about it and the position he performs within the movie, will get diluted. These should not actually let-downs; in actual fact, much more and larger concepts of the unique materials have been consciously performed round with, some bettering the story and a few butchered mercilessly, making Pathu Thala a movie by itself.

We open amidst a tense political battle inside the ruling social gathering of Tamil Nadu; Arunmozhi (Santhosh Pratap), the Chief Minister, and Naanjilaar Gunasekaran (Gautham Vasudev Menon), the Deputy Chief Minister influential sufficient to topple the federal government, don’t see eye-to-eye. In a stunning flip of occasions, the Chief Minister will get kidnapped, and all eyes flip in direction of AGR, an notorious mining mafia head in Kanyakumari. As all efforts finish in useless, Gautham Karthik’s Sakthivel (as Gana), is shipped to seek out out extra. Most inside the social gathering suspect Naanjilaar’s hand within the disappearance of the CM, and this solely provides to his anger at AGR.

The screenplay of Pathu Thala is woven tight — greater than the supply materials — but there are too many points in how this movie is paced. None of the characters manages to create an influence, and every part feels rushed. Selvam (Teejay Arunasalam), together with Sabari and Singa, are the right-hand males of AGR; the movie touts them as important but doesn’t care sufficient to present them any significance within the story.

Even that romance involving Gautham Karthik doesn’t sit effectively. Right firstly, we’re advised that the newly-appointed Tahsildar of the Kanyakumari district, Leela Thompson (Priya Bhavani Shankar), is an ex-lover of Sakthivel. Leela is at loggerheads with AGR’s males, and each the crime lord and Sakthivel realize it. If you’re an undercover cop making an attempt to nab a gangster who has killed greater than 40 such spies, wouldn’t you have a look at your ex being in the identical city, not to mention being concerned within the difficulty, as a free finish to be taken care of? We by no means get a dialog between the 2 about his involvement within the mafia.

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Director Krishna’s writing and execution of emotional sequences even have some startling tonal variations. For occasion, Pathu Thala on the centre is a narrative a couple of brother and a sister; AGR’s sister Samudra (Anu Sithara) refuses to speak to him after an unforgivable betrayal on his half. The purpose why she doesn’t go to the authorities about it and the logic behind each different motion she takes within the script have to be stable, but Pathu Thala doesn’t supply all that. On the opposite hand, the identical movie doesn’t go for the traditional flashback sequence for the siblings, opting to deal with it subtly via a single shot that claims rather a lot about the home they reside in.

It is excessive time that Tamil administrators cease overplaying the Nayagan-ish Robinhood-figure trope. Simbu’s AGR is projected as a person who mines to offer for the poor. “A bad face is needed to do some good,” he says. It works largely and makes method for a couple of good punchlines that preserve Simbu followers on their toes, but the identical do-gooder sentiment when repeated usually does get a bit tedious.

Silambarasan, nevertheless, is all the time a delight to observe when he will get going, and his palpable, explosive on-screen vitality is as soon as once more on nice show. Gautham Karthik is the shock bundle; he comes on high with a very commendable efficiency. However, each the leads are let down because of the screenplay and Gautham’s character is rendered much less good because the story strikes, whereas Simbu doesn’t get sufficient substance to energy this mass persona.

It’s solely a spectacularly-shot motion sequence within the second half that provides any vitality to this movie which has an atrocious reveal that may put any technological development of the 21st century to disgrace. Pathu Thala can also be a type of rarest circumstances the place the background rating helps the movie’s vitality in a single scene, whereas additionally killing it in one other.

It is unfair to check Mufti and Pathu Thala; nevertheless, this remake is an efficient case examine of the way it isn’t sufficient to infuse extra novelty on paper if the identical doesn’t translate to the display.

Pathu Thala is at the moment working in theatres