Thambi Vettothi Sundaram Tamil Movie
Thambi Vettothi Sundaram was one of the films to release this week. The fact that it had Anjali, an actress who has chosen A-grade material in the past more than once, made me think that this would be at least all right, if not better. I looked it up and realized that there has been quite a buzz that managed to escape me. The movie was said to be based on the true story of a person named Vettothi Sundaram, a controversial bootlegger hailing from Kulesekaram, a district in Kanyakumari. The filming unit supposedly faced a number of problems created by civilians on the set at Nagercoil. The buzz mounted further when a plea was put forth to ban the release of the film, which finally required the producers to screen the film to the people of Kanyakumari before release.
As it turns out, none of the above mattered. Coming out of this made me instantly recognize this as the worst movie experience I've had this year. Thambi Vettothi Sundaram has no redeeming factor. Even technically, there are innumerable glitches. Director Vadivudaiyan can't stage a scene that has huge logs of wood falling off a truck, so he employs VFX that makes the logs look like objects stolen from a shelved-during-production animated movie. The first fight sequence appears to have been shot in four different locations that bear no physical resemblance to each other. Vadivudaiyan makes no bones about siding with the films' characters and glorifying them. The Hero wipes off puke from the mouth of an acquaintance and promises to dedicate his life to him. Another character playing second fiddle to the hero wins our hearts by wishing prosperity to the same man who breaks his prosthetic leg, and then cries about heartburn while sitting under a random tap on the street. ROFL. As if the characterization being one-sided wasn't bad enough, this farce ends up becoming about gangster rivalry. For a film that seems to take its source material seriously, the presence of toilet humour only makes Thambi Vettothi Sundaram consistently empty-headed and dull. So were my eyes, repeatedly wandering away to the glowing exit sign while the rest of me kept sliding down the seat because there really was nothing else to look forward to.
No film has sunk this low and hit rock bottom with a thud. The only wise decision Vadivuayan has made is assigning Ganjakaruppu the role of an extra instead of a supporting actor. Actor Karan, aiming for feeling rather than expression, is sincerely committed to his role but to no avail while Actress Anjali takes histrionics to a new level by going mentally haywire.
