There is this famous saying "Its about the journey, not the destination", might be an apt catch phrase for ';Thodari', which has Dhanush and Keerthi in the lead. Set completely in the backdrop of a train journey, Prabhu Solomon has every ingredient required for a blockbuster, a talented actor, picturesque scenes, enough content to shell out a thriller, somehow through the journey he tries to mix up everything and in the end its just one of the journey’s which goes down in vain. For a director who is known to embrace the natural way of acting and screenplay as it flows, it should come as a surprise for all Prabhu Solomon fans as it has a lot of loopholes, that said the movie still strikes a chord in very few departments, read on to know more.
Train journeys can bring some memorable moments, the people around, conversations can sometimes be the best of a life time. One such train journey becomes a nightmare when a so called DC express running to Chennai encounters various problems including becoming unstoppable and runs on full speed. Dhanush is a catering boy in the train, falls in love at the moment he sees Keerthy Suresh a touchup girl who also wants to be a singer and the first half goes through with how our romeo tricks her into love by enacting a chance for singing in film industry. The first 45-50 minutes of the movie is a complete mess with the director making us wait for what’s in store, to fill the vaccum he feeds with romance, comedy and some cinematic portions. Probably for the first time ever Prabhu Solomon’s partnership with Thambi Ramaiya doesn’t seem to work, for the comedy portions looks a complete let down. As a catering manager, Thambi Ramaiya looks too artificial in his conversations with Karunakaran and Dhanush.
With romance, comedy as the key, the train chugs along with no big incidents until Radharavi as the Central minister and Harish Uttaman as the Commando enter. A war of words involving Harish and Dhanush look very cinematic and seem quite unnecessary bringing a duel between a Malayali and Tamilian, making it as the point of motive to bring hatred looked completely amiss. The director leaves the interval block with a rather interesting twist, an unstoppable train heading towards Chennai Central with more than 700 passengers on board, more than enough for a poised finish and an edge of the seat thriller. What happens next is to watch and find out.
Dhanush is always at his best when underplaying, he takes up a role that no one would have expected and waves off with flying colors. He downplays his acting for the role and completely clicks, probably best to say that the director did not use his complete potential with weak dialogues and pedestrian scenes. Keerthy Suresh is cute and acts will in the role ofan innocent girl with a horrible voice but wants to make it big as a singer. The Dhanush-Keerthy pair sure is one of the positives of the film. Doss’s patchy editing work has made the movie look lengthier and there is surely scope for trimming the film by at least 15-20 minutes. The second half which has scope for a clean thriller slows down with erratic comedy scenes and dialogues which could have been done away with.
Prabhu Solomon's films are mostly like a poem, it comes right from the woods with a melody, and the screenplay just flows with the characters, 'Thodari' doesn’t click here at all. The dialogues too which serve as a backbone for most films looks amiss with most of the conversations coming without any motive at all. Why Dhanush and Harish fight, why there is an air of confusion in the media, and so many questions are unanswered The artwork inside the train and the setup is completely laudable, however the VFX doesn’t seem spot on and doesn’t give that thump factor. Imman gives his best in both the songs and the BGM suits the movie’s journey milieu right on the money.
Verdict: ! If at all there is a reason to watch Thodari it is Dhanush, Keerty and Radha Ravi's acting and a few thrills in the second half. What could have been an adventurous journey is letdown by the lengthy screenplay, meaningless dialogues and horrible comedy.
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