What if MGR of Pallandu Vaazhga meets Sivaji of Thanga Pathakkam in the form of Vikram from Saamy? That precisely is the character of Vijay Antony in his cop tale, Thimiru Pudichavan – he is a cop who is rugged, strict and wants to turn the bad guys into good guys.
So is the screenplay of the film, which is also an amalgamation of a number of filmy styles and genres.
Writer Ganeshaa has taken better cinematic liberty drafting the plot point with elements like action, comedy, romance, sentiments, super-naturalism, psychological issue, social message and, of course, good vs evil.
There is a scene in the film where the hero is hospitalised after an assault, which the heroine sees in her dream. Later, he romances lying on the stretcher but asks the heroine not to cry aloud since it is a hospital. She immediately rushes to the terrace to burst into tears. In this very scene is the miniature of the entire screenplay as it has a blend of love, action and comedy in a paranormal background.
The packaging of Thimiru Pudichavan is both its USP and shortcoming. There are moments during which the movie gets the combination right, like the villain’s decision to shave off his moustache with a strategy retaining his villainous attitude.
There were also sequences where one of the cinematic elements exceeds to dilute the emotion of the scene. At the same time, there were also some smart moments for the hero who wants to shatter the image of villain among the public and his followers by lodging a row of petty cases against him. But as an end product, the movie has an infirm bedrock.
The action choreography by Sakthi Saravanan is intriguing during one-on-one fights but the Murugan temple fight was a bit far from reality both while scripting and staging. One of the strong points of Thimiru Pudichavan, in terms of technicalities, is its cinematography by Richard.
Regarding cast, it was Nivetha Pethuraj who was a surprise for breaking her stereotype and displaying a totally interesting attitude.
Putting everything in place while tying all the loose ends must be one of the most challenging tasks for a commercial filmmaker. Thimiru Pudichavan gets it right at times and goes berserk in the rest.