Thalaiva 2013 (Movie Review)


Dir: A.L Vijay
Starring: Vijay, Amala Paul
Dur: 2 hrs 43 mins
Genre: Action-Romance
Rating: 1/5

This is the first Tamil movie I’ve ever watched and I can’t say I was impressed. I’d heard a lot about Tamil cinema and one of the observation that I had made was that it was far more original compared to Bollywood. Thalaiva helped me make two further observations: (1) The Tamilians are fiercely loyal to their culture and language.
(2) They love to think that they are strong and capable of beating all odds.

A huge fight breaks out in Mumbai between the Maharashtrians and Tamilians. The Tamil leader flees with his son. The second-in-command too is offered a chance to flee following the murder of his wife but he chooses to send his son away and stay. Fast forward to the present, he is now known as ‘Anna’ and is the law outside the law. All those who the law fails to punish are referred to him. He is a hated and feared figure but to the Mumbai Tamilians, he is like God. Thousands of kilometres away, his son, Vishwa (Vijay) has become a well established businessman and part time dancer. He and his Tamil speaking buddies capture the hearts of Australian girls with their ‘cool’ steps. Vishwa’s life was progressing smoothly until he falls in love with Meera (Amala Paul). Their relationship grows and reaches the stage of marital commitment. Meera‘s father requests to meet Vishwa’s father and that is the turning point.

Vishwa had not been to India in a long time and neither did he know his father’s true identity. A neat police trap succeeded in capturing Anna and Vishwa was jolted to reality. Anna’s untimely death created a void in Tamil leadership and Vishwa offers to fill it. Thalaiva literally means leader and so this is a story of an ordinary, carefree young man’s transformation into a mafia-style boss of the Tamilians. Vishwa’s arch rival is Bhima (Abhimanyu Singh), son of a Hindu fanatic leader who was murdered by Anna in retaliation to his wife’s murder. Bheema sought revenge against Anna and got it and now turns to finish off Vishwa.

The film has two distinct part: the first is set in Australia. Things move slower; romance is dominant with a hint of comedy. The second part is set in Mumbai; action is in the foreground although romance lingers in the background. The songs are quite alright; the dances are well synchronized but could do with better choreography. The action is artificial. The film is unnecessarily long and the hero pointlessly glorified. The climax scenes are poor and fail to inspire. I enjoyed the experience but I wouldn’t want it a second time.  

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