R ARIVANANTHAM
In Tamil, Thiruchitrambalam means the abode of Lord Shiva. After watching the national award-winning versatile actor Dhanush’s ‘Thiruchitrambalam’, Director Mithran Jawahar’s family drama, Thiru will fill the hearts of all viewers as the boy next-door. The duo, Director Mithran & Superstar Dhanush, have jointly raised the bar for Tamil films with good narration and well-shot scenes.
Despitethe whopping success of Hollywood movie ‘Grayman’, Dhanush exhibits his acting prowess with much ease in the company of Nithya Menon, Prakash Raj and director Bharathi Raja. They have one again proved that team spirit always pays rich dividends.
- One more feather in the cap of glory of national award-winning versatile actor Dhanush’s career
- Thiru’s grandpa, Director Bharathi Raja, holds the house together with his humour and practical attitude
- Dhanush exhibits his acting prowess with much ease in the company of Nithya Menon, Prakash Raj and director Bharathi Raja
Thiruchitrambalam, a food-delivery guy liked a girl in school, but he stepped aside because he felt she was out of his league. Later, too, as a grown-up, when he sees her as a woman, he doesn’t go up and say hello. It may be due to low self-esteem. It may be the fact that he did not go to college and he’s now a food-delivery guy and he thinks she is still out of his league, given that she lives in a posh flat and orders food worth thousands of rupees. Or it may be it’s the fact that there is something broken about him. That is the film’s first line, which we hear in Thiru’s voiceover: Life is like a piece of glass. Even a small crack makes it break. That small crack in Thiru’s life is a tragedy that occurred when he was a boy, and his life stays broken despite the best efforts of his neighbour and best friend, Shobana, played by Nithya Menon.
Thiruchitrambalam and Shobana couldn’t be more different, and the reason Thiru works is because of the utterly convincing non-chemistry between Dhanush and Nithya Menon.
Nithya Menon has a bundle of energy, filled with positivity and a can-do spirit. Thiru is filled with negativity and a no-can-do spirit. She is brave, bold. He is scared of getting into a fight, even when she was insulted by a bunch of jerks in a cinema. He drives a Scooty, while she wants to see him on a more “gethu” bike. Sometimes, we think only about the bad things we perceive about our lives. Oh, my career is shit! Oh, my relationship with my father is shit! Oh, my love life is shit! And we end up full of self-pity. Thiru is that guy. Shobana always cheers him up. She always has his back. And yet, he remains a beer-drinking moper. Dhanush and Nithya Menon did their characters excellently that we don’t stop and think why this girl is still friendly with this guy. We buy this relationship completely. The other relationship that works beautifully is the one Thiru shares with his grandfather, who is an older version of Shobana. The old man (Director Bharathi Raja) holds the house together with his humour and practical attitude. Bharathiraja is excellent in this role. He feels like the human equivalent of that old and favourite and super-comfortable tee-shirt that we still wear, that we can’t bear to discard despite the holes in it.
The scene where he talks about his love life is a cracker – and it’s one of many. The other resident of the household is Prakash Raj, who is a sub-Inspector. He, again, is superb, as is the old couple who play Thiru’s maternal grandparents. This is such a well-cast film – and well-shot film, by Om Prakash – that we manage to overlook Raashi Khanna and Priya Bhavani Shankar, the only two actors who give generic “heroine” performances.
Thiruchitrambalam is proof that you don’t need a brand-new, groundbreaking, earth-shaking story to make a good, relatable movie. The screenplay is marvelous.
The director keeps finding new ways to present these old events. He gives us a funny scene with a facepack.
Anirudh’s loveliest song, ‘Megam karukkadha,’ like a dance number from a 1950s Hollywood musical. He gives us the feel of a G-rated Selvaraghavan, his mentor, with closely packed houses and local dance competitions. But most importantly, he gives us a film that has a lovely, low-key charm, but this is exactly the secret strength of Thiruchitrambalam.
