Thaandavam
Overlong masala movie starring Vikram, Amy Jackson and Santhanam
Kenny Thomas (Tamil superstar Vikram) is a blind man leading a double existence: by day he plays the organ at a rural Kentish church; by night he uses echolocation to assassinate targets in London. His life becomes more complicated with the intrusion of Sarah Vinayagam (Amy Jackson), the winner of a beauty pageant looking to increase her public profile by making charitable appearances.
Director Vijay’s second film with Vikram (after 2011’s God’s Own Child) is a massive, multi-genre masala movie: alongside Kenny’s murderous activities and his dramatic interactions with Sarah, there’s comedy with Kenny’s regular cabbie Sathyan (Santhanam), romance in an extended Godfather II-style flashback to India, and espionage action involving a stolen WMD. Add to this the customary song and dance routines (including one visually striking sequence by the white cliffs of Dover), and the 160min running time becomes understandable.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it bearable. Certain elements, such as Santhanam’s hapless taxi driver and the iPad-fixated homicide detective Veerakathi (Nassar), are enjoyable, but while the central cast perform their parts adequately enough, the supporting players are abysmal (and abysmally dubbed), and many of the disparate plot strands would have benefited from heavy cutting. Other bum notes include a series of badly-rendered explosions in London and a bizarre cameo from echolocation pioneer Daniel Kish – it’s an over-abundance of these missteps that result in a sense of relief when the credits finally roll.
Selected release from Fri 28 Sep.