Thanga Magan Tamil Movie
No hero introduction song. No slow-motion shots of protagonist walking down a dark road. Without much commotion, Dhanush's Thanga Magan opens to a rather emotional scene where a family is struggling to come to terms with their head's demise. Later, the story is narrated through flashback from Tamizh's (Dhanush) perspective.
Thanga Magan once again positions Dhanush as a bankable star-actor talent amidst all his contemporaries who strive to stride the balance in careful proportions. But, as a film, Thanga Magan is nothing more than a fair-to-middling entertainer, at best.
Unlike Velai Illa Pattathari, where Dhanush single-handedly shouldered the film supported by Anirudh's scintillating chartbusters, here, the extensive supporting and lead talent - Samantha, Amy Jackson, Radhika, KS Ravikumar, Jayaprakash - have also chipped in with their contributions.
Thamizh, who is a freewheeling middle-class teen, gets smitten by Hema's (Amy Jackson) ravishing beauty in his first sight. He then, like every other hero in Indian cinema, stalks her. And, he calls it 'decent' in a heated conversation with Hema few moments later when she takes him to task. When love eventually blossoms between Thamizh and Hema, his cousin Aravind, with whom Thamizh used to spend most of his leisure time, gets possessive and walks away from his life. Soon after, Hema too does a disappearing act from Thamizh's life due to conflict of ideas between the two which ends up in a rather bitter misunderstanding.
The love portions between Amy Jackson and Dhanush are quite reminiscent of '3' and few other teenage romance dramas in Tamil. Sathish's one-liners leave the audience in splits. The inconsistent make-up of Amy Jackson aside, there is not much to complain in the first half, which entertains and stirs, despite the predictable story-telling.
The maturity in Velraj's writing is appreciable, especially before and after the interval. The break-up is not handled with the regular hero-gets-addicted-to-drugs-and-rehabs approach. Instead, clock ticks and Thamizh moves on with his life and gets married to Yamuna, played by Samantha, who impresses with her expressions and lets her eyes speak for the first time in her career. She brings out the innocence of her character with a de-glam yet sensuous make-over.
The technical values are topnotch. Visually, the film looks colorful with Kumaran's striking sense of aesthetics. Anirudh background score doesn't elevate the intrinsically staged romance scenes between the leads and works only functionally. Velraj has matured as a filmmaker and adeptly delivers a simple entertainer though the last few minutes of the film shatter his already-earned respect from viewers.
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