Thadam Review
Star Cast : Arun Vijay, Vidya Pradeep, Tanya Hope, Smriti, FEFSI Vijayan
Director : Magizh Thirumeni
Arun Vijay’s Thadam is a whodunit thriller which is loosely based on various real-life crimes where the suspects are identical twins. Director Magizh Thirumeni has used the concept of identical twins, which is a new idea and sketched a gripping screenplay which is engaging and taut with a pulse-quickening suspense and shock in the climax.
Ezhil (Arun Vijay) is a civil engineer who leads a normal upper middle-class lifestyle. He drives a swanky BMW car, lives in a posh bungalow and his life goes in the right direction with his construction business doing well. He is in love with a film journalist Deepika (Tanya Hope).
Ezhil’s twin brother Kavin (Arun Vijay) is an intelligent, street smart, con man who swindles money from smugglers, woo multiple women, and knows all the loopholes in the legal system. His only weakness is gambling which he inherited from his mother (Sonia Aggarwal) who got divorced from her husband when the kids were young.
Both Ezhil and Kavin can't see each other at any point of time. The twin brothers travel in their own path until a crime happens in the city and Ezhil is nabbed by inspector Gopalakrishnan (Fefsi Vijayan) based on his image which was found in a selfie pic taken by the neighbor of the victim. Coincidentally, cops also arrest Kavin in a drunken drive case and he is brought to the same police station creating confusion among the officers.
Both the brothers deny their involvement in the murder. Gopalakrishnan (who wants to frame Ezhil for personal reasons) asks his assistant, the smart Malarvizhi (Vidya Pradeep) to investigate the complicated case. Cops should now break their heads to find out who among the twin brothers is the real murderer?
Magizh Thirumeni’s screenplay will keep you guessing till the climax. Without much delay, the director gets into the film by introducing both Kavin and Ezhil, their contrasting lifestyle and journey. Until the scene where both the twin brothers meet, we don’t know their backstory and why they look similar!
So the film deserves our attention throughout, which is a big plus for this whodunit thriller. The major letdown in Thadam is the forced backstory featuring Sonia Aggarwal, as her character neither gets our attention or sympathy. Magizh Thirumeni’s writing sounds convoluted in the flashback portion.
However, the director compensates with the last twenty minutes climax filled with a lot of twists and turns. The presentation is smart and stylish.
Thadam’s biggest strength is Arun Vijay and his convincing performance as Ezhil and Kavin. He’s is not only physically fit and exudes the strength that the character requires but has the necessary vulnerability. Though the brothers look similar, Arun shows distinct body language and dialogue delivery for the two characters.
Among the heroines, Vidya Pradeep as the smart cop has the best role and she is good. Yogi Babu and Fefsi Vijayan is perfect. Overall, if you can overlook the lifeless flashback scenes, Thadam is an engaging whodunit thriller from the word go.
