Tughlaq Durbar Tamil Movie

Tughlaq Durbar has a thoroughly entertaining first hour, a stellar idea, and a Vijay Sethupathi in fine form. It never quite comes together in the latter portions, but Vijay Sethupathi's self-conscious performance lends some credibility to the proceedings. I enjoyed the film on Netflix, despite its shortcomings. Sep 12, 2021 By Sreejith Mullappilly

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Delhiprasad Deenadayalan's Tughlaq Durbar deals with different political themes, most notably the idea of associating politics with crab mentality. Think of politicians in India as crabs in a jar. When one crab tries to get out of the jar, the others would pull it down. Most of our movies show the world of politics in this manner, and Tughlaq Durbar is no exception.

Tughlaq Durbar opens with the scene of a woman giving birth during a political rally. This scene has Parthiban as Rayappan, a local politician addressing his community. Singam is born during the event and then becomes a loyal follower of Rayappan. He is willing to go to any length to impress Rayappan and his party, even if it means pawning his mother's jewelry for election poster work. This does not go down well with his sister, who then mentally isolates herself from Singam.

Years later, Singam (Vijay Sethupathi) is still trying hard to get into Rayappan's party. After losing his mother and father in childhood, he follows Rayappan blindly and lives with his sister Manimegalai (Manjima Mohan). But Manimegalai hardly speaks with Singam as he does not care for the issues in her personal life. Manimegalai's boss misbehaves with her at work, but Singam tells her to move on from the episode and work for the family. Singam is not a likeable guy, which makes Vijay Sethupathi's decision to do the role a bold one.

Soon, a strange event brings about a change in Singam's personality. The rest of the movie is about how he deals with his issues and his political ambitions. The movie is about Singam's journey of realizing himself.

There is a terrific idea at the heart of this film, one that speaks to the dual-face of our politicians. The behavior of the central characters reminds me of a line from Mani Ratnam's Nayagan, which translates to this: "Are you a good person or a bad person?" A good part of the movie is about Singam trying to solve this question about himself.

The idea is terrific but not quite the treatment. The first half of the movie is entertaining, with all the punchlines working and all the songs being timed or placed properly. I quite enjoyed listening to 'Kaami Kaami', a track with quirky lyrics and superb picturization. But soon things spiral out of control, and the movie turns into auto-pilot mode. In the latter portions, you hardly get the impression that Delhiprasad Deenadayalan is trying to properly finish off the things he started or direct the movie enough. Instead of treating characters as characters, in the final portions, he uses them more as plot devices, while aiming for the element of satire about the crab theory we discussed earlier.

What keeps the film enjoyable throughout is the performance of Vijay Sethupathi. The actor makes the character interesting while ensuring that it never becomes serious with just enough self-consciousness. Parthiban and Sathyaraj are cast in familiar roles but do what they are supposed to do. I wondered why Manjima Mohan hardly speaks in the film, even though she is good in the quieter moments. It is Karunakaran who gets a solid role as Singam's friend Vasu.