August 9 – “Thalaiva”, Vijay’s latest movie with the tagline ‘time to lead’ directed by AL.Vijay fails to impress the audience as much as his earlier movie ‘Thuppakki” because the story and scenes are broad daylight plagiarism from screenplays of acclaimed movies ‘Nayagan’ and ‘Thevar Magan’.
The movie is yet to be released in Tamil Naadu due to security reasons but was released today worldwide including Malaysia.
‘Thalaiva’ deals with the same issues happening in the city of Mumbai which had been shown in several Tamil movies such as gangsterism, racial and religious tensions, political intervention in police matters etc.
Movie’s storyline……….
The movie opens in the year 1988 in Mumbai with the death of one so called Tamil underworld Don named Vetha. Violence breaks out among rivalry gangs to conquer the underworld and in the process, Sathyaraj, introduced as Ramadurai, a labourer from Tamil Naadu town Thirunelveli, is accepted by people as their new leader.
Sathyaraj’s adversaries make an attempt to kill him but his wife sacrifices her life in the process. Not wanting his son Vijay to be embroiled in the on-going gang-war, Sathyaraj sends him with his friend Nasser to Australia where Vijay grows up as a businessman with a passion for dance.
Some turn of events brings Vijay to Mumbai and only then he realises the life-style of his father and the problems faced by him. Caught in the middle of a gang-war and politics Sathyaraj is killed and Vijay instead of returning to Australia stays back to revenge his father’s killers and to fill the leadership-for-the people role vacated by his Don father.
The second half of the movie then revolves around the story line as to how Vijay deals with the police and rivalry gangs amidst politicians creating racial violence for their own political expediency.
The first half of the movie is heart-warming with comedian Santhanam making his presence felt while Vijay shows some of his usual dance skills as a dancer heading the dance group in Sydney called “Tamil Pasanga”.
Santhanam steals the show….
Santhanam steals every scene he appears in but the movie loses its glitter and turns into a somber mood when Vijay moves to Mumbai. The tone of the movie only picks up when Santhanam joins back Vijay in Mumbai. If not for Santhanam the movie would be dull and boring.
The only interesting twist in the movie is when heroine Amala Paul and her father Suresh are shown as Police officers tracking to arrest Sathyaraj.
Most of scenes remind us of ‘Nayagan’ and the issues dealt in ‘Thalaiva’ are also the same as Nayagan. In addition the movie also brings us memories of ‘Thevar Magan’, where son Kamal Hassan takes over the leadership of the village from his father Sivaji Ganesan.
Director Vijay has taken the short cut by conveniently plucking scenes and storylines from these two great movies. At times ‘Thalaiva’ also reminds us glimpses of ‘Baadshah’ another super hit movie from Rajnikanth.
Music and songs are composed by G.V.Prakash and some of the songs are soothing to ears. The song ‘Vangganne Vanakkam anne’ is sung by Vijay himself.
Amala Paul as the heroine….
Amala Paul shines as the dancing pair of Vijay in Australia but fails to impress as the police officer with her skeleton figure. The second heroine Ragini looks much prettier than Amala Paul.
Sathyaraj is also an added asset for the movie with his majestic looks as the Don of Tharavi, s region in Mumbai populated by Tamils. However, his slow delivery of dialogues also reminds us of Kamal Hassan in the movie Nayagan.
One interesting scene in the movie is where Vijay and his rival villain track down the streets of Mumbai for the video recording of the communal violence. Otherwise the fighting scenes are also boring and run-of-the-mill with Vijay singlehandedly taking an army of villains with guns and knives.
In the climax despite two knife-stabbed wounds Vijay manages to over-power the villain and his men.
The film ends with Vijay donning the same attire worn by Sathyaraj which makes the audience laugh. Vijay looks clumsy with a large red shawl, the same one as worn by Sathyaraj.
The scenes promoting Vijay as ‘Thalaiva’ and the accompanying song makes it so artificial and unbelievable since it is only about Vijay in effect becoming an underworld gang-leader and not for the masses for some good reasons.
With so much negative reviews, the film may take a dip in box-office collections if not released as soon as possible in Tamil Naadu.
-R.Mutharasan
