The Lone Man

No no no no!! The Lone Man is not related to any Hollywood movie. Nevertheless, it is still a movie. This blog is dedicated to a film which has piqued and captured my interest ever since its release as it has garnered great acclaims from everyone especially coming from the stables of M. Raja. Yes. you are right. I am talking about 'Thani Oruvan' in this blog. Because of my injuries, I couldn't catch up with the film when it was released earlier. Finally, I got the opportunity to watch the film with my mom today. I was completely flabbergasted and stunned to see M. Raja in an altogether complete new avatar in this film. Without much ado, here goes my review for this wonderful film!

Though he has given several blockbusters albeit remade from other languages, I have always cursed M.Raja for not making any original scripts despite him being a good director. So, when I heard the critical positive reviews from my friends that M.Raja has actually managed to make an original script and had pulled the rabbit out of the hat, it was like Harris Jayaraj doing a score for Shankar! When people get used to do something in their lives and more importantly, when they have a winning combination at hand, they are highly unlikely to disturb the successful relationship especially when the stakes are really high in the film fraternity. M.Raja has had always played the safe card by remaking hit movies in other languages and given super duper movies in Tamil with his brother. Yet the news was for real - M.Raja's Thani Oruvan is a fresh script and stylish too! Just like Anniyan's music was a big hit, Thani Oruvan has single-handedly ensured that other directors would be remaking M.Raja's film in multiple languages for the first time in his career. Such is the power and impact of the script. When I watched it with my own eyes, I was simply dumbfounded and wondered why it had taken so long for M.Raja to create this masterpiece. 

I am not going to dive deep into the screenplay or the script but rather concentrate on the finesse and the flair with which the film was handled with much self assurance and self aplomb by the entire crew. The movie transcends the general cat and mouse genre. It was like a fight between T-rex and a Velociraptor in the Jurassic movies. One with tremendous power, brutal strength, intelligence and operating alone while the other operating in pack, relying on intelligence and trying to outsmart each other by living life on their own terms. Jayam Ravi was the epitome of a true police man along with his friends and has done phenomenal justice to his character until he ran into a more sinister Siddharth Abhimanyu who literally stole the show from Mithran IPS. It was actually refreshing to see Aravind Swamy breaking all the barriers from the regular, stereotypical role of a villain that has been etched in our minds from time immemorial. No shouting. No rambling unwanted punch dialogues. No unnecessary item songs with police entry. No cuss words. Infact, he spoke GRE words like incorrigible! Very sophisticated, suave, cold, calculative with a domineering personality. Even incredible and unbelievable would sound normal for such a stellar and sublime performance by him. Other notable performances include Thambi Ramaiah's and Nayanthara's characters.

Instead of merely dancing in scantily cladded clothes and involving in unimportant romantic sequences utterly unrelated to the storyline, it was really heart-warming to see a heroine play an important role in the movie much like Asin's character in Ghajini. It could have been better if Nayanthara had been seen in more scenes throughout the film as she was a forensic expert. Likewise, Thambi Ramaiah simply eased out in his portrayal as a timid father who says yes-yes to Abhimanyu. I was literally clapping my hands when he knew he was delivering a wrong message during the press conference and still continuing with the delivery thinking that his son had told him once that he would become a CM one day thus following his son's words verbatim. There were several noteworthy and whistle blowing scenes in the film - the many twists in the movie, the bug detector, the gun case, the white board writing. M.Raja has really given this story a great deal of thought and attention to detail to the script like placing a GPS with audio into Mithran on the pretext of removing a minor bullet casing from him in the hospital. The BGM was equally in sync up with the mood of the film casting aside the irrelevant duet in the middle of the film. But considering the entire film as a whole, that song can be forgiven.

Woof!! Thani Oruvan is slick, racy, clever, smart with a social message built into the entire framework, thus marking another feather in the cap for M.Raja's directorial venture. Hats off to him for making his creative genie out of the lamp for such a bold first attempt. Though his name RAJA, it is the story which is the real KING! :)