Thiruttuppayale 2 Tamil Movie

Feature Film | 2017 | UA | Drama, Thriller
Critics:
Audience:
Thiruttupayale 2 from Susi's stable had some intriguing bits that came through as a result of an interesting plot which demanded to be milked more.
Nov 30, 2017 By Baranidharan Sivasankaran



Director Susi Ganeshan has always had interesting premises for his plots. Even a fiasco like 'Kandasamy' which was his last in Tamil in 2009, had an intriguing superhero who literally exposed what went behind the gimmicks of superheroism.


Though Susi's 2006 'Thiruttu Payale' had its plot centred around a run-of-the-mill adultery subject, he was convincingly able to engage us in a deception game. It gave us an artist like Jeevan, who enjoyed a successful streak playing a leading man with shades of grey in a bunch of movies, before disappearing into thin air.


Susi's latest, 'Thiruttu Payale 2' (TP 2) obviously aims at rekindling the recall value with its title in order to set the expectations right. This movie is not an extension of the 2006 movie; in fact, barring the title, director and the producer, everything else in the movie is different from its previous part including the plot. TP 2 (like TP 1) gives us 2 immoral personalities pitted against each other - a cop who uses his position to manipulate and swindle from the corrupt and a social media predator who preys on women.


Officer Selvam (Bobby Simha) is tasked with tapping certain designated phone numbers on behalf of the police department. He taps and unwittingly finds out that his wife, Agalya (Amala Paul), who is a Facebook addict falls into the trap of a social media predator Balki (Prasanna).


Though Selvam has the will and power to crush Balki, he is unable to do so, thanks to his own dirty hands and the manipulative moves of Balki, who threatens to crush Selvam's family and his dignity as a cop. The cat and mouse game between the two and the final face-off that comes on expected lines was narrated with some enjoyable moments.


The movie tries to showcase how the modern day gadgets and technology could influence our lives and society at large in a negative way. Though cinematic liberties were in full swing, the movie drives home some valid points. Being an avid Facebook user myself, I felt being wrapped around the head more often than not and consequently could relate to the proceedings.


Bobby Simha as a manipulative cop has balanced deception with dignity. Still, he wasn't very convincing as a 'hero' who could romance. His chemistry with Amala was just ok. Amala, on the other hand, was over-the-top with her performance. She looked 'real' as in without makeup, sporting the pimples on her cheek with some charm and muttering Tamil with a signature Malayali dialect.


My pick with respect to the performances would be Prasanna - subtle and effective as the deadly antagonist who spews vengeance and venom in optimum doses. With a toned and muscular look, he silently walked away with the cake and the cherry. Muthuraman as the DIG gave a rollicking performance with his cunning and manipulative moves.


Though the movie had a solid premise and interesting characters, the narrative at times felt rushed. Especially the portions where Susi himself appears as another detective in order to literally clean things up and unwind the knots during crucial plot points - a modern-day equivalent of Visu's appearance in his family dramas of the late 80s. Also, the narrative technique of explaining how many of us get to play dual lives unconsciously at times was not very convincingly conveyed.


The climax and the manner in which Prasanna gets entangled was another cinematic wishful thinking. At the end, Bobby Simha being stripped off of everything that he looted through unlawful means was the "saving the hero-image with the screenplay" sort of an ending.


After a long time, it was pure aural bliss to listen to Vidhyasagar's melodies. However, the 'party song' for Amala in the first half was a dampener. Technically the movie was chic with a liberal production value.


Susi's comeback cannot be termed as memorable, but it's a decent one, wherein he hasn't believed in any stars to do the honours, but he has placed his trust on his content and writing, which has become a rarity these days. Welcome back Susi, expecting to see more from you!

Baranidharan Sivasankaran

   

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