Rajesh Sampath Kumar

MOVIE REVIEW: THADAM “An edge-of-your-seat thriller that could have been so much better” Identical twins, a brutal murder, airtight alibis, and a female cop. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a film; or so I thought! The murder of a rich young man places Ezhil (Arun Vijay), a civil engineer, as the prime suspect. Circumstantial evidence has Ezhil locked down in an apparent open and shut case. Things get complicated when Kavin (Arun Vijay), a conman is also arrested and has similar wounds on his body. Strengths: 1. Without a doubt, the film’s biggest strength is how the mystery element is first built and then maintained till the third act. Director Magizh Thirumeni succeeds in deceiving audiences and keeps them guessing till the end. 2. After the commercially successful CCV, Arun Vijay hits another home run, this time all on his own. The efforts he has put in to showcase subtle differences in his mannerisms, the improvement in his body language and overall screen presence is praiseworthy. 3.Vidya Pradeep is quite convincing as the cop investigating the case, trying to figure out which suspect to believe. 4.The twist is worth the wait and the element that makes it special is that it is based on a true story. The suspense in the second half was very good and the ending did not disappoint. Negatives: 1.If you had walked into the film only during the interval and watched only the second half, you wouldn’t have missed anything. I dare anyone to challenge me on this. The first half of the film is infested with irrelevant scenes from extended kisses to unnecessary songs to mind numbing fillers; your patience will definitely be tested. Too much time was spent digressing, meandering and mulling over all things asinine. 2.Unecessary supporting characters – Meera Krishnan shows up as a wily con artist and does nothing to move the narrative forward. Yogi Babu is hardly utilized except for a few scenes which were not really funny. Sonia Agarwal? Don’t even get me started on her. A complete waste of screen space. 3.It was not really necessary for the Director to display the names of the twins on the screen. I’m sure audiences are intelligent enough to tell the difference. Personally, I felt that this was a major faux pas from the Magizh Thirumeni. 4.The flashback sequences were not structured well and added very little value in terms of entertainment. VERDICT: A slightly above average murder mystery that starts poorly but delivers in the end. RATING: 3 / 5