Udhayanidhi Stalin made a strong acting debut in ‘Oru Kal Oru Kannadi’ and followed it with similar themed movies which had Santhanam as the main draw. Uday has tried his hand at the thriller genre with ‘Gethu’ directed by Thirukumaran of ‘Maan Karate’ fame, quite successfully.
The film opens with a renegade sniper Craig (Vikranth) who assassinates an army officer from a long distance and is given a new assignment by a traitor to finish off an ISRO scientist named Abdul Kamaal (the reference to APJ is not missed) within thirty days. The story then shifts to Kambam where a PT teacher Thulasi Raman (Sathyaraj) leads a peaceful life with his son Sethu (Udayanidhi Stalin) wife and a daughter. Sethu, who works as a librarian to retired Colonel Mathews (Rajesh) meets a kleptomaniac Nandhini (Amy Jackson) who steals books from the library and after a few altercations the two fall in love. Vikranth for some unknown reasons lands in the hill town and is seen wandering and taking photographs of Rajesh. Meanwhile Sathyaraj complaints about a political based bar owner Kandhan (Mime Gopi) and in an ensuing fight Uday comes to his rescue bashing up the goons. Mysteriously the corpse of Kandhan is pulled out of a water falls and in his hands a ring belonging to Sathyaraj is found. The police arrest Sathyaraj and Uday takes it upon himself to clear his fathers name and sets out to find the real killer.
Udayanidhi has done a neat job as Sethu and does so even without the company of Santhanam managing the action scenes quite well. Sathyaraj as the social conscious family head is the real Gethu man of the film. Vikranth has delivered a chilling performance as the cold blooded assassin. Amy Jackson appears in a few scenes in the first half fitting into the role well and providing some comedy relief as well. The British beauty is fetching in the three songs. Karunakaran and Rajesh are the other artistes who make their presence felt.
Music by Harris Jayaraj is a big plus with cinematographer Sukumar providing crystal clear pictures of the western ghats and Dinesh Ponraj ensures a smooth story telling through his editing. Thirukumaran who has written and directed ‘Gethu’ has chosen a rather slow pace to the screenplay but puts all the red herrings in the right places and the film flows through to the guessable climax. Special appreciation is due for quickly doing away with the subplots like the love story between Amy and getting back to the main theme.
On the downside the uneven pacing and lack of enough comedy scenes might not go well with the general audience.
Verdict : On the whole there is more style than substance to ‘Gethu’ but is definitely watchable.
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