Bala's strength lies in the characterizations of his lead character and being a taskmaster he invariably extracts career defining performances from his actors. In 'Tharai Thappattai' Bala gives us a female hero Sooravali brilliantly enacted by Varalakshmi who captivates the audience and holds them with a lot of promise throughout the first half.
Bala introduces some interesting characters in the beginning like Pulavar Samy (G.M.Kumar) an unsuccessful musician who wastes his life with the bottle, his teetotaller son Sannaasi (Sasikumar) who is the head of a 'Tharai Thappattai' music and dance troupe and the alcoholic Sooravali (Varalakshmi Sarathkumar) the lead dancer who has the temper of a man but is in love with Sannasi and has a soft corner for Pulavar Samy. A fan of Sooravali, Karuppaiah (R.K. Suresh) proposes marriage to Sooravali through Sannasi and her mother, who is impressed with his government job and his decent behavior gets Sannasi to convince the girl to agree and what happens next forms the rest of the story.
It is a Varalakshmi show all the way and she has done full justice to her character name Sooravali as she has truly performed like a tornado. An excellent dancer, Varu has shown different emotions through her dance movements. She is convincing when she nonchalantly drinks liquor or in the scene where she singlehandedly bashes up several men. Her body language and dialogue delivery are perfect for the loudness required for the character but also scores silently with her eyes when she has to separate from the love of her life. A brave effort from Sasikumar to play the second fiddle to the heroine and he does so with ease as he gets right under the skin of Sannaasi. G.M. Kumar's character is an extension of the Highness character he played in Bala's 'Avan Ivan' and he gives what is required. R.K. Suresh on debut as the villain is apt and the supporting cast are all uniformly good including Amudhavanan and Anandhi who plays his sister.
In his 1000th film the Isaigniani has shown that he is the king of re-recording and all the songs serve as the backbone of 'Thaarai Thappattai'. All the other technicians have done a neat job.
In these modern times Folk artists of Tamil Nadu are struggling to keep their art alive and are forced to resort to sexually explicit songs and dance movements to make their ends meet. Kudos to Bala for showing the plight of these artistes and after watching the film everyone will see the street performers with more compassion. The scene where Varu dances like a possessed woman to feed her hungry lover makes a strong impact and so are the sequences when Sasikumar wanting a good life for Varu decides to part ways.
While the first half promises so much the second half is a total let down as the screenplay goes wayward and the long-drawn climax is unbearable not only because of the blood and gore but because of the unimaginative execution which is just a copy of all other Bala climaxes. The biggest crime that Bala commits is writing Varalakshmi completely out of the script in the second half and a girl who has been shown as headstrong and capable of literally beating up men is made to surrender to the villain without a roar thereby killing the Sooravali character. R.K. Suresh's villainy looks like it is straight from a B or C grade film and what is more to say that when the hero and heroine meet a tragic end the unimaginative sequences prevents us from feeling for them.
Verdict : Watch it for Sasikumar and Varalakshmi in the first half and the weak hearted better walk away at the interval.
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