Directors PG Mohan and LR Sundarapandi’s Theerkadarishi is one of the strangest films you might come across. It traces the journey of an upright, police control room head, a policemen duo who were formerly friends, a strong-willed deputy commissioner, a multitalented electrician, a selfless psychologist, a good-willed hairdresser, an emotionally wounded father, and an anti-casteist lover. In case you’re wondering whether the film has a hyperlink narrative connecting all of these characters, you are wrong.
Theerkadarishi is more a messy marathon in which you hardly root for any single character. In a likely attempt to make the film an overarching police procedural without the hero-heroine-villain formula, the screenplay oscillates from one character to another. This writing choice feels particularly awful, given that the film is a suspense thriller at its core.
A series of phone calls from an anonymous caller unnerves the police control room, and eventually the police department at large. The anonymous caller predicts future crimes and drops hints to stop them based on his alleged visions. Every prediction of his turns out to be true and the police start suspecting the caller to be the actual criminal mastermind. A long-delayed climax with a reveal we see coming miles ahead announces the identity and backstory of the titular anonymous caller.
Though the story sounds like a mishmash of many recent thrillers, it has the substance, on paper, to hold our attention. But the film suffers from poor staging—and its not like we get any respite from the cinematography, music, screenplay and editing departments either.
Despite having proven performers like Devadardarshini, Ajmal and Sriman in the cast, the director duo only manage to reduce them to caricatures. Sathyaraj, featured as one of the main leads in the posters and promos, only makes a brief appearance. However, the few minutes we see him are the brightest in this film. If Theerkadarishi had turned out to be as lively and engaging as these few minutes, it might have recreated the nostalgia of Sathyaraj’s 2002 film Maaran.
Though the directors hold back the entry of Sathyaraj till the very end, only sticking to the usage of his voice, they choose to tease the appearance of another famous personality: MK Stalin! The film has a lookalike playing the Chief Minister, aping his signature modulation and gestures.
During a crucial moment, where this character has to make a life-or-death decision, he gets beguiled by the words of the anonynmous caller and goes, ”Theerkadharishi-ay sollitara? Appo senjida vendiyadhu dhaan!” I burst into laughter for this unintentional humour. This is probably all I will remember from this film.
Directors: PG Mohan – LR Sundarapandi
Cast: Ajmal Amir, Dhusshyanth, Jaiwanth, Sreeman, Devadarshini and Sathyaraj
Ratings: 1.5 out of 5 stars