Solid: Vikram Prabhu, Anjali Nair, MS Bhaskar
Director: Tamizh
A Tamil cop movie is nearly all the time the story of when somebody is already a cop—a constable, inspector, the much-abused assistant commissioner and so forth. Author-director Tamizh goes backwards to discover what makes cops of Tamil Nadu who they’re in Taanakkaran. The movie begins with Arivu (Vikram Prabhu) arriving on the Police Recruits College for coaching. The experiences of the hero, his motley group of colleagues and the menacing “system” make up the remainder of the movie.
To Tamizh’s credit score, Taanakkaran will get loads proper. The movie stays strictly inside the confines of the varsity and its environs. It slowly builds as much as the abuse and discrimination that passes off as coaching. The intelligent use of historical past permits for characters from completely different age teams, even when not in any other case numerous.
Vikram Prabhu, as Arivu, makes an earnest effort. Whereas his emotional vary appears restricted, he comes throughout as dedicated to the job he’s signed up for. Lal, as Eswaramoorthi, is persistently menacing. At each step of the best way, he convinces the viewers that he’s a heartless, ruthless dictator and a metaphor for the unrelenting justice system he’s part of. Madhusudhan Rao as his senior is a close to mirror picture of Eswaramoorthi. Livingston, regardless that he seems for just a few minutes in a crisp flashback, delivers an impactful efficiency.
M S Bhaskar, because the light coach who can be wronged by the system, is as dependable as ever. He channels righteousness, anger, self-loathing, self-pity, love and hope—a efficiency so heartfelt that I puzzled if all this was written for him in any respect or he simply introduced all of it with himself. Anjali Nair, who performs the hero’s pointless love curiosity, additionally does an excellent job of what’s handed to her.
Structuring the movie as an underdog-taking-on-the-system story provides the chance to sneak in little methods which have satisfying payoffs. The mass moments, although understated, are rewarding. Ghibran composes a soundtrack that elevates the movie with out getting too loud.
Regardless of all the pieces that’s proper about Taanakkaran, the movie falls brief. The most important motive maybe is the unreasonable concentrate on depicting the violence. The animated prologue introducing the colonial historical past of the police pressure is sweet data in unhealthy kind.
We’re repeatedly proven torture and abuse. Tamizh desires us to see that it’s an integral a part of police coaching, however we barely ever be taught what it turns the trainees into. As a rule, the trainees clear themselves up and present up the following day. So, we by no means actually see what such institutional violence, peer strain and expectation can do to good individuals.
The dialogues are sharp. For example, proper in the beginning, a personality asks, “If all we’re going to do is pull individuals off the streets and thrash them, what’s all this coaching for?” In one other scene, a humiliated father tells his son, “In the event that they’re not ashamed to do that to a hapless man who went to them for assist, what have I bought to be ashamed of?” But, when it’s time for the large moments, dialogues fail the movie. That is particularly jarring within the climax when Mathi (Bose Venkat) rattles off a lecture.
On this testosterone-addled movie, Anjali Nair barely has a spot. She comes and goes, falls in love with the hero, seems in pavada-dhavani and chudidhaar a few instances, when hardly anybody else is seen off uniform. Tamizh might need had the chance to indicate us what it’s like for girls within the police pressure, however he adamantly refuses to be swayed from his mission. This makes the movie poorer.
If you happen to can look previous the repetitive scenes, melodrama, ineffective love monitor and the lecturing climax, Taanakkaran is an fascinating movie concerning the police pressure. It critiques the system with out displaying mercy to the people that uphold it. It’s hopeful with out portray a miraculous future with broad brushstrokes. Actually, a few of the David and Goliath confrontations would possibly even be intelligent.
