Thupparivalan Tamil Movie
Director Mysskin tried to dabble with a mainstream mass masala through 'Mugamoodi' a few years back and ended up losing an arm. A fiasco at the box office to be precise. This time around, he has taken a calculated risk of dabbling with a more grounded super-hero, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, the legendary detective. Mysskin slyly doffs his hat to the historical character in his authentic signature style, amply aided by a mass hero like Vishal.
The movie opens up with a happy family getting disintegrated when the father and his son are electrocuted at the strike of a lighting. Then in another stray incident, a senior cop collapses and people suspect it to be a murder as he was hail and healthy until then. Then the introduction of our detective happens through an eccentric camera work. A kid approaches him with a complaint about the murder of his pet dog. The guy immediately takes up the case (due to some intuition) and then he solves the jigsaw puzzle that connects all the stray incidents and nabs the "devil" behind the happenings!
With Sherlock Holmes being reincarnated as 'Kanian Poonkundran', what more one would want to believe that the story has been adapted to match the native sensibilities. Of course, the narrative was gripping and filled with mind games and intelligent sniffs with doses of sinisterness and deception. Everything was carried out in a linear narrative. Mysskin, you amaze me every time!
Mysskin is that rare breed who walks the talk. He hates to cast stars in his movies. Vishal, though had some mass moments, in this avatar justified that. Also, I was able to see a lot of Mysskin in him, like in any other Mysskin movie, where the leads and the characters go into a momentary freeze before getting into a frenzy and deliver funny yet emotionally driven dialogues - a signature of an auteur.
Prasanna as Dr.Watson (tamely referred as the sidekick for the detective) has underplayed and through that has established that he has been wasted all these days. He needs to explore various facets of acting and needs better roles as he seems to be a reservoir of talent.
Shaji, the writer, plays the cop for one more time in a Mysskin film (last time it was in 'Onaayum...'). His role comes to the limelight during the climax when he is made to wail and cry in pain. Though it evokes laughter, we tend to lap up that as the movie wraps up.
Bhagyaraj in an unrecognizable role adds to the sinister drama and Vinay as the "Devil" was fantastic. He had that wickedness all throughout. Andreah as the femme fatale was run-of-the-mill.
BGM by Arrol made the proceedings come to life. There was only one song, which was also played just for the sake of it as a line - another quirky touch from Mysskin. Cinematography by Karthik was immersive, as with the case of any of Mysskin's previous outings. The camera sometimes gets into our heads instead of the eyes.
The climax with the hands and legs tied and stunts where characters come in and get their round of punches were all vintage Mysskin 'isms' that bore the director's signature. This signature masala from Mysskin works due to the director's ability to stick to his strengths of following his own narrative style without any compromise.
PS: Recommended for adult viewing, owing to the theme and violence!