Film: Thoongavanam
Director: Rajesh M Selva
Cast: Kamal Hassan, Trisha, Prakashraj, Kishore, Yugi Sethu, Madhu Shalini
Sset in the confined space of a night club, it chronicles one night in the life of an officer at the Narcotics Control Bureau, who sees his well-planned plot going awry. His cocaine-heist had backfired on him and his son’s life was at stake. An official adaptation of the French action thriller Sleepless Night, the film is directed by Rajesh M Selva, a long time assistant for Haasan’s films. The film stays almost faithful to the original, with minor diversions, probably to add to the nativity.
It opens in action mode, where two men, Diwakar and Mani (Hassan and Yugi) are shown stealing a bag of cocaine from a car. It belongs to drug-lord Vital (Prakashraj) who had to deliver it to the buyer (Sampath). Diwakar’s teen son is kidnapped, and held in a night club owned by Vital. With both Vital and the officers of the bureau (Kishore and Trisha) at his heels, it’s about how Diwakar extricates himself from the situation and saves his son.
Hassan is restrained, and makes no wrong moves. Trisha is adequate, displaying her emotions well in the scene where she learns of the duplicity of her colleague. Kishore is the intense cop with an agenda of his own.
But the scene stealer is Prakashraj. The actor brightens the scene with his flamboyance and quirky humour. The kidnapping and rogue cop scenarios are taken along the lines of Taken and No Way Out respectively.
The film has a couple of mild twists. The action and fights are spread over different spaces in the club like its washrooms, toilets, ceilings, bar, dance floor, and kitchen. Diwakar uses everything that comes in handy, whether bottles, glasses, or kitchen knives, to ward off Vital and his men. The noisy crowd, the din and the music all convey the right ambiance. But a shot of the expansive layout of the club, could have lent a better understanding of where exactly Diwakar was moving, as he keeps crisscrossing through different doors.
A bleeding Diwakar passes through various spaces with people all around, though no one seems to be the least perturbed about his plight. But flaws aside, Thoongavanam provides a fare different from the usual formula-backed ones. A promising piece of work from a first-time director, it is definitely a one-time watch.