Thagappansammy Movie Reviews

Seemingly inspired by director Cheran's school of film-making, debutant Shivashanmugham has dished out a movie which dwells on a youth's passion for his native village and his heroics in saving his people caught in an alien land.

The director has got his basics right. He has succeeded in getting the right environment and the nativity in the movie is good. Also he has opted for a good star cast. All the characters fit the bill.

Prashanth has got a film in which he can make his presence felt. He has enough scope to prove his acting skills. As an angry young-man fighting for his land, Prashanth excels.

It is a different film for Pooja. Playing a rural belle, Pooja appears in half-saree all through and emotes well too.

Namitha, on the other hand, appears in just a couple of scenes and fades away.

The film begins with Kadhirvel (Prashanth), a do-gooder going all out to get water for his village. With monsoon repeatedly failing, his village reels under drought and Prashanth runs from pillar to post to get a well dug in the village. He manages to bring Shanmugham (Mahadevan), a water-divining expert to dig a well in the village.

Shanmugham along with his wife and daughter Marikozhundhu (Pooja) come to the village. Unfortunately a freak mishap kills Shanmugham and the villagers' search for water continues.

To eke out their livelihood, all the villagers led by Prashanth decide to leave the village with a heavy heart to take up employment in a farm house in Rajasthan. Upon reaching the place they come to know that they have been taken as bonded labourers and there is no way out but to work there tirelessly for the next three years. They undergo physical and mental torture from the greedy landlord Thakur Dass (Vincent Asokan). A silver lining in the cloud is Swapna (Namitha), Thakur's sister. She gets fascinated by Kadhirvel's heroics.

The rest is how Kadhirvel fights for his men and helps them reach their village back without any danger and eventually marry Marikozhundhu.

Srikanth Deva's music is okay. The scene- stealer has been Sridhar, whose camera has captured the camel race in Rajasthan well.

The movie begins on an optimistic note and the opening scenes remind one of K Balachander's Thaneer Thaneer. Unfortunately it takes a clichéd path towards the second half with Vincent Asokan playing a regular Tamil villain.

Had the director concentrated more on the second half and trimmed a few scenes, it would have been a different film.

On the whole, the film is different and surely is worth watching.