Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru - Review

Review may have spoilers.

We have seen lot of cop stories in Tamil cinema and most of them were successful too. Even this year, we had an interesting, entertaining and stylish Vikram Vedha. Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru is different from other cop movies. Theeran is neither like an Aaruchaamy or Duraisingam I.P.S to utter 'naan Police illa porukki' kind of punchlines nor a stylish Anbuchelvan I.P.S. The movie is based on real life incidents. Its based on 'Operation Bawaria' headerd by Mr.Jangid. Theeran goes after the dangerous dacoits who were a nightmare to the public in 90s.

You can easily identify what kind of movie Theeran is, on watching the first scene, after the title card. The police officer asks the trainee cop to demonstrate how would he handle a weapon(knife with blood) from the murder spot and the trainee cop will religiously lift the knife with a white kerchief, on seeing which the senior officer would ask 'how did you learn this? from movies? and the trainee replies yes'. That was really funny and I liked the way the director trolled all other cop movies.

Bose Venkat, plays the inspector, assisting Karthi. He is there till the end and has done well too. The scenes towards the interval were the best part of the movie. You would feel like watching the deadly robbery in person. It was filmed in such an interesting way. I would say, these scenes are one of the best in the history of Tamil cinema itself. So much of realism.

The chase begins after interval. Theeran takes charge of the operation completely though he has a team. Karthi shines as the honest cop Theeran. He doesn't overact, shout or utter any meaningless punchlines. He has a very good screen presence and he has concentrated on his body language and expressions. His calm acting, appeals to the audience and you can hear claps and whistles when he says 'mein bevgunaa(I am innocent)'. But what works for the movie is, the cruel nature of the dacoits. Because you have a ruthless, brutal gang of dacoits, the person who hunts them appears Godly on screen.

Usually, Tamil movies based on real incidents, would only show police in bad light. Theeran is different even in this aspect. It shows the police in positive light but doesn't fail to take a dig at our corrupt system and careless authorities. Some sarcastic dialogues in serious scenes, shows what kind of talent, director H Vinoth is. When Bose Venkat starts explaining the case to Rajasthan cop, something like, 'sir actually is was' for which the Rajasthan police asks 'are you from Tamil Nadu, your English shows that'. There is another dialogue "உங்க ஊர்ல கொள்ளை அடிக்காம ஏண்டா இவ்வளவு தூரம் வந்து கொள்ளை அடிக்கிறீங்க? இங்க உத்தர ப்ரதேஷ்ல எங்களை encounterல சுட்டுடறாங்க. ஆனா தமிழ் நாட்டிலே போலிஸுக்கு 20 ரூபா கொடுத்தா போதும், எங்களை விட்டுடறாங்க. அது மட்டும் இல்லை, உங்க போலீஸ் கிட்ட துப்பாக்கியை இருக்காது ஆனா எங்க கிட்ட இருக்கும்". You just can't stop clapping for these dialogues.

The movie happens in 1990s and there is a reference to Vajpayee's Golden Quadrilateral. The movie also refers to the history of 'Kutra Parambarai'. Vinoth had a proper script on paper and has done some research too, before bringing it on screen. Theeran has a good background score by Ghibran and  stunning visuals by Sathyan Sooryan.

The only negative with the movie is the duration of love scenes. They could have trimmed it. I am not a fan of the director's previous movie(his debut) 'Sathuranga Vettai'. I felt it to be a very ordinary film with some good scenes here and there. Its unbelievable that this director, has made a brilliant film like Theeran. A film based on real life incidents is not something new to Tamil cinema. Its difficult to have a racy screenplay for movies based on real incidents. But Theeran has.

Theeran will satisfy both the set of audience,  who prefers artistic films, which concentrates more on script and making and who expect only a racy action film without any boring moments.

This is a terrific movie. Don't miss it.