'Thangalaan' Review: Unconventional writing choices, backed up by solid performances and technicalities strike gold in this brave tale of gold and greed.

 

THANGALAAN:

OVERVIEW:

Thangalaan is definitely neither an easy watch, nor an easy film to review at. This is indeed a brave experiment by the whole team.

Stories like Thangalaan deserve to be told and experienced on the big screen. The film is really fresh and unique from the conventional mainstream cinema we are exposed to. Thangalaan easily transitions across various time periods, giving us a sense of watching the evolution of not only the main character, but also the transformation of the world he inhabits. Films with world building has always managed to pique the interest of audiences and this is no such exception.

PERFORMANCES:

Films like these are powered by performances and this is no such exception.It is always a rare bad performance from Chiyaan and he gives this character a personality, with the way he walks, he speaks, he reacts, and the way he fights. Truly a great performance. Not to forget mentioning the great characters of Parvathy, Malavika, Pasupathy and even the secondary characters like the couple, the son of Thangalaan and the translator guy.

TECHNICALITIES:

This is technically a new peak. The dusted, sandy frames of the village, the close-ups of the characters shown, the geographies touched upon, all are truly something to marvel at. The music by GV Prakash is outstanding to say the least. From the title card to the last frame, he elevates the film through its thick and thin. The film's editing is a really complex one, from shifting illusions to real life episodes to giving the combat sequences a new flavour, the cuts and transitions convey the story beautifully.

WRITING AND TREATMENT:

Ranjith has daringly made an experiment of blending genres at different ends. The film deals with themes like adventure, magic realism, sorceress stuff and of course, the director's forte of social commentary. But what he has missed out this time, is to make a cohesive screenplay out of these. The film's rather simple story of a gold retrieving journey with some social issues touched upon is spiced up by the fantasy angle but the film doesn't put it through its full potential, not for the fact that it really puts the film in an interesting position.

The film also feels emotionally distant because of the one dimensional character writing, sparing Vikram and Malavika, and the visible lack of clarity in the dialogues spoken. The unique and eccentric dialect used is commendable, but it borders on being completely not understandable to just hear it for the dialogues' sake.

The film, at moments, feels confusing due to the bombarding of information and scenes thrown at us. Ranjith should be lauded for incorporating his ideologies and voice in a rather unique film in his career but the emotions or the rage we felt in his previous works, is not evoked here.

VERDICT:

To complete it, Thangalaan is a triumph in terms of technicalities and performances but falls a few steps short of a classic.