Anti-hero movies give us a new dimension (perhaps the better dimension) of actors, who are often affirmative to stereotyped performance. Vijay’s (Priyamudan) one such attempt was broadly acclaimed but timidly discontinued keeping mainstream fans in mind. On the other hand, we saw Rajini and Sathyaraj emerging as successful heroes using anti-hero themes as launch pads. (Sathyaraj cleverly continuing it). Jeevan falls under neither of the category. He didn’t have the luxury of becoming a mass hero nor did he start his career as a villain. After his unfruitful attempt in “University” he rightfully chose to play bad guy in “Kakka Kakka”. He continues his form effectively here.
The story deals with high society adultery which the hero (or the anti-hero) records it in video tape and starts blackmailing the people involved. Then he also falls in love with a girl who forces him to decide between love and money.
Everybody is a thief - is the theme of the story (Hope director didn’t steal this theme from elsewhere). The highpoint of the movie is in presenting a variety of shady characters instead of lame heroism and do-good characters.
The initial scenes of Jeevan smashing bottle on his brother’s head for losing the breakfast clearly depict what kind of a character he is. Thankfully, his sadisms are not overexposed from there. He moves to Chennai and finds blackmailing as a good career. He bargains for a lifetime luxury instead of a lump sum amount as settlement. The movie picks momentum at this point until the stage moves to Australia, from where it sags in lukewarm romance.
Malavika and Abbas plan to outwit Jeevan adds tempo to the storyline but falls into a clueless loop of Jeevan agreeing to surrender the tape and again starting to blackmail. Malavika’s husband takes up the charge from there which saves us from the burden to watch till the end credits. A cameo role by the director worries us whether it’s one more SJ-Surya-act but is mercifully kept short and crisp.
Malavika tries to act this time and scores too. She tries to get back the video tape so that she could get rid of it. But, it’s the biggest gap in the story to assume that copies (soft and hard) cannot be made before handing it over.
Jeevan as a blackmailer is more appealing than in romantic scenes. The sidekicks provide adequate support. Sonia Agarwal is as lazy and sad as always. She seems out of shape in bikinis. Abbas demoted almost to a villain (actually no one is a good guy, all are villain in this movie). Vivek’s usual preach-comedy track is crudely inserted without reason. But, the scenes involving people working in manhole are to be appreciated for the message.
The final chase at the race course is novel but it grows illogical when only the gangsters get tired while our hero stands tall without spilling a drop of sweat. It seems to be a law that fight sequences should be illogical. But, it’s a welcome change from fast-cut technique (where we couldn’t comprehend what’s happening) to wide angle technique where we could at least be able to figure out who is beating and who is beaten up. The twist at the climax though having poetic justice denotes that Tamil cinema is changing positively.
The title song “Thiruttu Payale” proclaims that Vairamuthu is still there for meaningful songs. “Poi solla poren” is funny and others are passable.
Thruttu Payale, a relief from stereotyped do-good-heroisms but still not up to the mark of a good thriller.