'Thiruttu Payale' the 2006 sleeper hit marked the entry of AGS Entertainment in Kollywood and comebacks for director Susi Ganesan and hero Jeevan. Eleven years later the sequel has arrived with the director –producer combo teaming up with a new cast and a standalone script which remains to be seen if it would do them proud like the original.
Selvam (Bobby Simha) is a cop working as a one man surveillance team reporting directly to the IG. His cheerful wife Agalya (Amala Paul) is a facebook obsessed young girl. Selvam uses the data he collects through phone tapping to make a private fortune unknown to anyone. During one of the recordings he gets the shock of his life to learn that his wife has connections with another man Bala Krishnan (Prasanna) a man with deadly machinations. What happens next forms the rest of the screenplay.
Bobby Simha as Selvam has got a role that has many shades and one should say that he has done full justice to it. He is subtle in the romantic scenes with Amala Paul, playing it out naturally and switches face when dealing with his enemies ruthlessly. There is also a scene that he steals from Amala and Prasanna when all three meet and have to act to one another. Amala Paul as the Facebook obsessed modern middle class girl is a perfect fit for the role, initially exhibiting the necessary glamour and later pinning the emotions as the victim making Agalya believable. Prasanna with a great physique and uber cool looks rocks as the Casanova and what makes his performance extra special is he never overplays even when the situation demands. Muthuraman as the IG with his own shade of gray has put in a noticeable performance while the rest of the cast is apt. Susi Ganesan himself appears as a private investigator providing for some unintentional comedy and hampering his script in the process.
The entire first half is gripping and well set up with many interesting episodes like Bobby bringing down a television channel, the sequences revealing how the villain character carefully studies his female victims for months together by their social media postings and sways them to virtually enter their homes. The backstory of Bobby Simha from honest to corrupt shown in flashes throughout the story helps establish his character well. The core issue of the dangers of social media is relateable to the audience . Bobby understanding his wife’s plight and changing his course of action is well written. Dialogues are simple and at the same time effective like for example when Bobby tells his friends that he cannot trust anyone after listening to people’s conversations and Prasanna telling Bobby that the cop’s strength is in his boots while the hacker’s is in his keypads. The interval block that shifts power from Bobby to Prasanna is a nice directorial touch.
On the downside, the second half falters to a great degree unable to match the promise the first half offered. The cat and mouse game between Bobby and Prasanna is only surface level while there is scope for delving much deeper. It is not convincing that Prasanna a filthy rich man who has a track record of bedding the women of his choice would go to the extent he does for the cop’s wife. For a story that could have been told in a brisk manner is for some reason paced slowly, which may not go down well with all sections of the audiences. Amala Paul’s character is compromised to show her as a victim instead of showing her as a woman who does falter which would have boosted the screenplay. The methods used to bring down the villain are far fetched and rank boring and the same is true about Amala Paul’s brother’s episodes, Susi Ganesan’s detective antics and the entire foreign potions in the end.
AGS Entertainment has rendered the film high production values, while Vidyasagar’s music, though outdated is pleased to hear with a passable background score. P. Chelladurai’s cinematography is crisp throughout while Raja Mohammed’s editing is clean and smooth. Susi Ganesan has chosen a relevant issue and has made a fairly gripping film, which however does not deliver all that it promises.
Verdict : Go for it for the fine performances from the lead trio and the relevant issue of social media predators tackled effectively.
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