The Rainmaker

Movie: Thaanthonni
Language: Malayalam
Date 19, March, 2010

Review
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Imagine a movie in which the script writer is hell bound at telling all the stories in the world within that one single movie, combined with a director who has no control where the movie is heading to. Looks like a Combustible Combination in over drive. Right? This is exactly what T.A Shahid and George Varghese do in the latest Prithviraj movie 'Thaanthonni'. There are not one, but three 'Thaanthonnis' (Disobidient ones) in the movie. T.A Shahid, George Varghese and Prithviraj. And what results is ‘movie mayhem’!

The Story - Over Written
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TA Shahid believes in over writing this story to the point that no one cares beyond a point. The first one hour is the saving grace in the movie. Its watchable.The antics of Prithviraj as 'Kochukunju' are kind of bearable and the first flash back arrives. You still feel that though everything happening is formulaic, its all as expected. But soon the interval scene arrives and what is clearly inspired from 'Puthiya Mugham' goes all sour in a poorly written and executed scene.After the interval, all hell breaks loose and its a downward spiral from then on. To a point, when it becomes a torture chamber where you are forced to watch the second flashback story, Prithviraj's 'Sagar Alias Jackey' act, tear-jerker family scenes and reunion of the old couples. Oh my God, they can use this one for the Guantanamo Torture Chambers, if they still have them open.

Directon - Lack of One
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George Varghese has no clue where the movie is going for once. He completely has given the reigns over to TA Shahid's story and script which keeps on over running. Most of the scenes are so poorly executed that from the word go, you get the idea that this new director lacks vision of his kind of cinema. A story has to be told in its sincerity and trueness. Everything of that sort is missing here. It seems director thinks that too many flashbacks means a great story or at least the scriptwriter has impressed that point on him. We surely do not need poor clones of Joshy. The original one is still alive and kicking.
Scene after scene you understand that not even chopping off 30-45 minutes of the movie can save it. Its was never destined to be a sane movie. At a running time of 2 hours and 30 minutes, 'Thaanthooni' is torture.

The Rebel Hero
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No Mincing words here. Prithviraj is below par in 'Thaanthooni'. He has charm in many portions, agreed but it cannot be called even as a good performance in a bad movie.
His scenes in the first half as a drunkard, poorly ape Mohanlal. Its almost as if you can see Lal performing in all his drunakrd mannerisms. And he commits criminal
mistakes in the kind of scenes that he has agreed to do. He is over stylish and loads of reels are wasted to show him as some 'super power'. Horrendous!
Finally, all the good will which 'Puthiya Mugham' and 'Robinhood' (to certain extent) had created has been vanished. No longer one can believe that the young star has a sane head on his shoulders. The script selection , the director, everything is shoddy. 'Puthiya Mugham' was sincere, precise, to the point and a performance well delivered in a commercial set up. 'Thaanthonni' takes him a few years backwards. He delivers 4-5 minutes long dialogues trying to be like Mammotty and Lal in One man hero movies, but haven't we seen that all with them. This is not the change that we are looking for. We thought the new generation star would think like the new generation and have better sensibilities. This is like back to square one.

Rest of the Bits and Pieces
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Ambika in a tear jerker mother role is filling up the screen space - literally. Loads and loads of characters but none leaves an impression. Poor old Suraj cracks some
one liners and scores. Jagathy is funny in a short role. Heroine is wasted for a song and few scenes. Cinematography is amateurish. Gopi Sundar does a decent job and
is one of the positive points of this movie. Tej Mervin's poor tunes remind us of Deepav Dev's valuable contribution in the success of Puthiya Mugham.

Finally, 'Thaanthonni' has neither soul or sincerity nor purpose. Its like those 'B' grade movies wrapped in to a family tearjerker. No one expected a master piece. Frankly, even an average movie would have been a positive surprise. But even with such low expectations, 'Thaanthonni' fails miserably. Sorry, to say the young super star, you have a long way to go in choosing scripts and getting them executed.

Verdict - 1.5 / 5 as Rating
'Torture' as Opinion

'Thaanthonni' - Get ready to be Tortured.