Finally, beating the hype, craze, crowd and personal excitements, I can proudly say that I've watched Theri (First day first show) as it released tonight in selected Malaysian cinemas and from everywhere tomorrow onwards. Being a Vijay fan, I would like to say that I'm not interested in writing a biased or selective review. I'm a fan of good films/quality cinema and I never hesitate pointing out the flaws or celebrating how awesome a scene could be. So here it goes, my Theri spoiler-free review;
What makes up a good film? It's ability to convince you to watch it again becomes the strength of success for any movie nowadays. So the very question that came up to my mind was, should I go for Theri again? The 'Vijay' in me would definitely force me to go for it but then the rational self of me denies this premise. What could have gone so wrong?
The film deserves a very big credit just for its background score. If it was Anirudh setting the bar for Kaththi then its G.V Prakash Kumar for Theri today, he has nailed it big time by surpassing every expectations! Songs were placed timely in the film and was never a major barrier in screenplay. Everybody on screen justified themselves as an actor or actress very well. Be it the playful Nainika-Vijay combo or the romantic Samantha-Vijay pair, these combinations were a delight to watch. The technical team behind the film lifted the film to the level it is now. Just by seeing the trailer we would have known how good the editor, cinematographer, stunt master, make-up artists or costume designers should have been and yes, they lived up to the expectations very well. The costumes were eye-pleasing, the action sequences were finally realistic and the screenplay goes so quick that you wouldn't even know what the whole thing is about. It's either a racy film trying to chase a ghost or a distraction so that you wouldn't grasp the plot.
Theri feels like a mash of genres, battered so fast and unevenly most of the time. It tries so hard to do everything and show everything that it finally ends up being its own suicide rope. Remember how 'Thuppaki' developed a single social message of an army man overcoming terrorism or how a common police officer could take down a powerful tycoon in 'Thani Oruvan'? That's the very reason why you visit these films regularly as the theme of the film was an attraction by itself. When it comes to Theri, it slams moral messages unto your face every now and then without developing them into a single powerful concept. The whole film feels under-developed and were mostly predictable as well. I guess the only thing that worked in this Atlee-Vijay combo were the 'massy' scenes, which was a cakewalk for Vijay himself in the first place and its occasional powerful dialogues throughout. Despite the talented casts, expertise in technicalities and a whole lot of budget, no mass or class of Vijay could save this poorly under-developed, deeply commercialism-rooted and predictable film from being what it is.
Conclusion: Way better than 'Puli' yet so far from 'Thuppaki'. A few powerful hits yet mostly major misses throughout.
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