‘Thalaivan Thalaivii’ movie assessment: Vijay Sethupathi, Nithya Menen anchor Pandiraaj’s hilarious but problematic entertainer

After watching Thalaivan Thalaivii, you may ponder over numerous issues — from how tiffs in households can come up out of petty causes and the way gender dynamics play out in Indian households, as to whether the movie’s radical stance on divorce is a bit skewed. But earlier than you get into all that, you’ll be tempted to do that — hit a south Indian non-veg joint for some sizzling steaming parottas and hen salna (you win if you happen to order the alluring Paal Parotta that Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menen devour within the movie).

Somehow, spice is the time period that involves thoughts when considering of Pandiraaj’s newest flick (‘masala’ feels too sturdy nowadays). Thalaivan Thalaivii, like a spicy Madurai fare, has all of the flavours you’ll discover in a crowd-pleasing entertainer. At its naked bones, it could not inform a novel story — a couple of feisty couple whose marital life turns bitter, from their households and mates including pointless spice to a match already at odds. But the movie really comes into its personal within the first half, because of how audaciously Pandiraaj mixes the a number of parts we’ve come to affiliate with such household entertainers.

Assembled with intent and function, the movie reminds us that the template can nonetheless work — and that the elusive monster known as patriarchy will rear its head in a world constructed to host it.

Nithya Menen and Vijay Sethupathi in a nonetheless from ‘Thalaivan Thalaivii’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

We start with Perarasi a.ok.a Arasi (Nithya Menen ably shoulders the half) and her household taking her toddler daughter to carry out the ceremonial tonsure at their household deity’s shrine. But whereas the barber is midway by means of the shave, Perarasi’s estranged husband, Aagasa Veeran (a incredible Vijay Sethupathi), interrupts and sends him flying, infuriated that the ceremony is going down with out his discover. The two households collide, there are brawls, slaps and taunts, and the chaos attracts the eye of a neighborhood thief (Yogi Babu) and a household (Kaali Venkat and co.) visiting the temple for his or her son’s birthday.

Why are the 2 households so enraged at one another? Why did Arasi stroll out of her married dwelling, leaving a husband she so dearly cherished? What is, in spite of everything, the difficulty between Veeran and his brother-in-law (RK Suresh)? How a lot parotta does Veeran, a parotta grasp on the family-owned lodge, eat when he’s careworn?

A baby with half-tonsured head, a boy carrying his birthday cake, and a thief shaken away from his thieving pursuit, wait patiently with the viewers as a hilariously chaotic story unravels the solutions to those questions. Firstly, one factor is made clear proper from the start — these are something but ‘normal’ households, if there’s ever been one. A joke calls Veeran a ‘Kirukku Payan’ (loopy fellow), and you might be left in splits as a result of these are really mad, mad individuals. Characters, particularly the central couple, get so eccentric that they border on absurdity, and at instances, even come throughout a tad too annoying.

At the fingers of much less in a position performers, this shtick wouldn’t stick, but Vijay and Nithya in some way promote the appeal, romance and the eccentricities of their characters, and the simple chemistry on display screen permits us to forgive when it will get barely repetitively theatrical. Every 5 minutes, now we have them bickering at one another, with Veeran screaming pointlessly, just for Arasi to silence him with out breaking a sweat. This turns into a sample, and you like how self-aware the movie is about Veeran’s helplessness.

Much of the primary half sails fairly easily — aside from a number of problematic dialogues, which we’ll come to in a bit — as we witness how Arasi, after marrying Veeran, will get distraught at how her in-laws deal with her. An educated younger girl who fell in love with a person she believed to be caring, Arasi questions whether or not she was married to work as an unpaid labourer at their lodge. The lifetime of consolation that she was promised, the place she would actually get to be an ‘arasi’, is compromised, and so she returns to her parental dwelling. Veeran then observe her dwelling, pacifies her and brings her again. This turns into a vicious cycle, and it’s hilarious how, after a degree, these tiffs are triggered by ego brushes, yet another nonsensical than the opposite.

Now, whereas it’s tremendous to point out these inconsequential causes as such, you anticipate the set off for the larger, central tiff that finally led to divorce to be sturdy. This is the place the movie begins to lose its footing, because the reasoning isn’t convincing sufficient. Post the intermission, the movie strikes fairly erratically until the climax. The stretch, from when Veeran’s enemies go away to confront him on the temple to when the 2 go on a non secular pilgrimage to get again collectively, is haphazardly written. Up till this level, humour lent a robust hand, particularly because of Yogi Babu, but when the jokes dwindle as effectively, the center stretch will get fairly tedious to take a seat by means of.

The climax we get to additionally turns into the ultimate entry in a collection of problematic takes within the movie, like a jibe about who the ‘wife in the relationship’ is when Arasi slaps Veeran. Yes, home violence stays deeply normalised in such milieus, but it’s ironic to see it in a movie that speaks towards egotistical clashes. A movie that locations its religion in sentimentality to heal damaged hearts may need completed effectively to point out that very same compassion to the remainder of its characters.

Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menen in a nonetheless from ‘Thalaivan Thalaivii’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Perhaps probably the most troubling side of Thalaivan Thalaivii is the anti-divorce stance that it propagates. A significant concern that may come up from Pandiraaj’s preachy dialogues is that the movie may very well be perceived as one which helps patriarchal notions surrounding divorce that are likely to imprison ladies in relationships, when the truth is, it might have served as a case research on how divorce isn’t all the time the reply. There was worth in being a movie that solely reveals how egos cloud judgements, and that love deserves a second probability (and that parottas will be consolation meals).

After all, this movie had already undone the scope for any ethical pursuits, because it had simply proven how ill-fitted these two individuals are within the relationship. On one hand, the movie overblows a fractured dynamic for the gags, and on the opposite, it needs to make a severe assertion on relationships. Regardless of who responsible or what had transpired between the 2, there’s incompatibility, and the movie by no means offers solutions to how the underlying situation is resolved — do they determine the position Arasi performs within the household? Do the moms perceive the perils of their actions? We by no means know, and so the movie turns reductive in its ethical classes.

Perhaps the ethical we might take from this complete train is that {couples} can resolve for themselves — you don’t want kin, mates, or filmmakers to let you know what is true or mistaken.

Thalaivan Thalaivii is at present working in theatres

Published – July 25, 2025 07:25 pm IST