Rajathanthiram - Movie Review

Rajathanthiram Movie Review

My Rating - 4/5

It has become a trend to produce a movie with three main characters as a lead. Catching up with critically acclaimed yesteryear movies like Soodhu Kavvum, Sathuranga Vettai, Moodar Koodam, Rajathanthiram is another valuable addition to the heist genre. Heist film is a sub-genre of the crime films, which focuses on three high-flying elements, i.e. planning, execution and consequences of whatever the plot deals with.

The strongest portion of this movie is its narration. Amid (Screen writer & Director) certainly falls on the list of modern age film maker alongside Karthick Subburaj, Nalan Kumarasamy and Pa. Ranjith. Film making is all about experimentation and testing patterns, which is what ‘Amid’ tried out here with the narration part that is intriguing as well as puzzling. A truly original attempt in Tamil cinema that should be appreciated.

Alright, let’s get started. Four prime elements in a film i.e. story, screenplay, music and performance, getting ready to be explored.

What makes you stay seated?

To start with the STORY, Arjun (Veera) and his two friends (Darbuka Siva & Ajai) has been involved in petty thieves, conning people for few thousands for their living within the Chennai suburbs. They really are quite good at what they do and hence nobody gets to know about them at any point of time leaving them to lead a peaceful life. But that is not all; there comes a girl (Regina Cassandra) who catch the attention of these three with her gracious smile and looks. Arjun falls for her and agrees to Deva's plan of stepping up to nail a big con job so that he can help her from financial stress. Unfortunately, his attempt of going big sets off a chain of events ultimately leading to an incredible climax.

It might sound like a not-so-interesting story, but it was the SCREENPLAY that makes you stay seated. Now and then it even pushes you to the edge of the seat. Amid just played with the plot and narrated it, trusting the audience. He didn’t play it safe as it was not a usual or traditional way of narrating a heist story, for which he has to be lauded.

PERFORMANCE is another plus in this movie. Veera has been just amazing with his expression. His uncomplicated expression during complicated sequence was just a treat to watch. Darbuka Siva’s witty one-liner with matching expression brings wrinkle around our chin even during stern sequences. Regina with her gracious screen presence not just impresses the lead characters in the movie but also the young guys at the theatre. The best part in the movie is the performance of ‘Pattiyal’ K. Shekar as ‘Azhagappan.’ His pesky looks, body language and casual dialogue delivery are something new to the Tamil audience and we will be disappointed if he does not sign more films in the near future.

What would have been better?

Being a thriller, MUSIC should be in a way to push the audience to the edge of the seat whereas here its the screenplay that does the trick. Remember Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series? Gautam Menon's Kakha Kakha? May be that would have been better.

This movie has been in post-production stage for quite a while. Had it been released on time, it would have definitely cracked the box-office.

Bottomline

Watch Rajathanthiram for its nail-biting screenplay and much-appreciative performances. Perhaps, it is difficult to catch it up in theaters as I came up with this review quite late. Wait for its original DVDs at your nearest outlets.

My Rating

Story - 4/5

Screenplay - 4.5/5

Music - 3/5

Performances - 4.5/5