Pongal in Tamil Nadu has always been a big affair, not just for the festivities but also for the big film releases. 2023 Pongal was no different. With 2 major releases Varisu and Thunivu, it was a mega pongal for tamil audience worldwide . The excitement and buzz about the release was all around the social media for the past 2months. Excited fans awaiting their favorite hero’s film release and posting updates everyday has been a common ritual now. Posters, teasers, trailers ,audio launch functions and many other pre release promotions were hyped well to instill the urge and set the stage.
#review
I chose to watch Thunivu with my hopes pinned on director’s past works . The film did have a gripping start, I must say. Bank robbery plans were detailed enough.More than one team involved in the robbery was a good plot and it was handled well in the first half.Manju Warrier (female lead) as Ajith’s partner did not have a meaty role but she was handled much better than other female leads in a mass hero film. Her existence made ‘some’ sense unlike other films of recent times.
As the film moved on to the second half, the screenplay had a lag and few sequences in the movie were ridiculously unbelievable. Especially the climax sequence and a scene after the intermission in which Ajith, (the lead actor) came back alive from a near to death car blast were groundless. If the director’s plot was to keep the hero alive and extend the storyline , why would he invest so much to set up such a blast rather made his injury reasonably severe to continue with the plot. Lengthy dialogs and so called funny conversations with supposedly a heist background seemed illogical. These are something they could have fixed in writing.
Keeping aside these negatives , the overall storyline was decent. An insight (for a few who were unaware) into the Credit card/Mutual fund schemes was good.
#hindsight
After watching this move, a sudden thought that flashed my mind was why would the recent mass hero movies have some obviously ridiculous scenes or sequences. The effect or a screenplay can be augmented but the logic cannot be substituted. Is this such a tough ask from the audience point of view? On the flipside , am not sure if it can be entirely blamed on the director.Thunivu has been directed by H.Vinoth who has given good/logical movies in the past. What’s it with these directors while they direct these stars, do they succumb to pressure in glorifying their heroes? IMDB stars for Vinoth’s movies with a big star have a lower rating compared to his other 2 movies. This is not just for this director, historically successful directors have failed in directing mass heroes. It is unclear if the heroes are interfering in the screenplay for the thirst of their fans or if it’s the pressure from the film producers. Whatever the reason may be, this is not a healthy trend.
Another pathetic trend with big hero movies is that the antagonists are either trivial or strangely stupid in the recent times. If the protagonist in a movie is a dare devil, his opponent needs to be equally daring and not succumb to lengthy conversations or stunts. The movie Vikram was a hit just because the villains were equally strong and eventually the hero stood tall.All that matters in the recent days are BO collection and nothing else .Twitter seems spammed with fan clashes and none of them are discussing about the story/plot or screenplay of the movie, all that they discuss is the BO collection.In a way these stars are kind of exploiting their fans knowing they would watch the movies in-spite of being miserable, sometime horrible. This cannot be encouraged even if it is justifies as a commercial stream.Why would the fans settle down for a mediocre movie, why wouldn’t they motivate their hero to give good cinema so they are celebrated by all. Fans are at a point where they just want to see their hero on a big screen and nothing else matters but is this healthy? Mass heroes need to shed their image and be truthful to the characters they are casted in. Hoping to see some good cinema from the big heroes in the future.
The only solace is that in-spite of all these noise, movies with good stories are also celebrated and have their reach. Thanks to good reviewers and OTT who spreads the word on good movies.
A request to all the future directors casting big heroes : Please concentrate on your storyline and glorify the movie and not your hero
The World Around Us 
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