Here’s my take on the Jayam Ravi and Arvind Swamy
starrer Thani Oruvan (The single guy)
Essentially a cop-story, the movie follows IPS
Mithran (Jayam Ravi) who believes that one’s capability is determined by his
enemies ( A variant of the adage – A man is known by the company he keeps ). He,
along with his buddies at the IPS training engage in weeding out crimes in the
locality. But Mithran has larger plans. His main motive is to detect the root
cause of the seemingly petty crimes (‘Emotional crimes’ as he puts it), identify
the one guy who is behind all these and confront that major-enemy.
Enter Arvind Swamy, the suit-wearing
French-speaking Padmasri awardee suave scientist Dr. Siddharth Abhimanyu. He is
amazing as the cool and scheming villain ; a calm genius who has the power and influence
to overturn governments – portrayed perfectly.
Thambi Ramaiah’s role as Sengalvarayan is worth
mentioning. From an enthusiastic party worker to MLA to Minister, he remains a
simpleton, always at a loss as to his son’s cunning plans. He (an “imbecile” in
Siddharth’s words) offers great comic relief without hampering the flow of
the movie.
Here are a few things I liked about the movie-
- Nayanthara (as Mahima) isn’t just the pretty love-interest of the hero. Mahima is the batch-mate of Mithran in IPS training and is a forensic expert. I particularly loved one scene where she talks some sense into a visibly rattled Mithran.
- The flow of the movie is not derailed for the sake of unnecessary comedy track or song sequence (There is only one song in the movie. Well.. in my opinion, that itself was unnecessary).
- There is no annoying hero-worship. The hero doesn’t win at every move ; at almost every stage, the game is evenly poised between Mithran and Siddharth.
- The IPS friends of Mithran, played by Ganesh Venkatraman, Harsih Uthaman, Rahul Madhav and Sricharan are equally smart and brave. All of them have given good performances.
- Though there is a lot of violence and action in the movie, it doesn’t seem unwarranted.
- Some parts of the movie reminded me of Sherlock - the ‘mind-palace’ like setup, the analysis of ‘what could have happened based on the evidence’, and of course the characterization of Siddharth like Moriarty.
- The intelligent writing and good acting lends the cat and mouse story more interest till the very end.
The hero is a Thani Oruvan, and so is the villain –
a match made in heaven.
Definitely a one-time watch ( Multiple times if you
can’t get enough of Arvind Swamy :) )
