Thoongavanam 2015

Cast : Kamal Hassan, Prakash Raj, Trisha , Asha Sarath, Kishore, Sampath Raj, Yugi Sethu, Guru Somasundharam

Plot and Storyline:

Thoonga Vanam(Sleepless Night) is a tamil Action thriller directed by Rajesh M Selva , Screenplay and direction by Kamal Hassan. The entire plot happens within a night and it is really slick thriller, a very different kind of thriller ever in tamil industry. The film begins with a killing scene in a char chase where Narcotics Board  Members Diwakar( Played by Kamal) and Mani(played by Yugi Sethu) take possession of a bag full of Cocain and the next day Vittal Rao ( played by Prakash Raj) kidnaps Vasu (Diwakar's son ) and asks Diwakar for the Drug which he stole from him. The entire plot revolves in the night where Diwakar tries to get his son back, Who is Diwakar? Does he get his son back? is the crux of the film .

Since the entire storyline happens within a night , there is not much characters involved in the film and most of the films revolves around Diwakar and how he saves his son in all the chaos. Diwakar is a modern day cop, He seems to be an"up to no good - Cop" but we see his real mission at the end, divorced and his character is as such has lots of told stories( a typical lead in many of his recent films, similar to Vishwaroopam). The major addition to the cast is Mallika (Played by Trisha) who has nearly as equal role in the film as such as Diwakar, The fight scenes between those two  are really worth mentioning, not a extraordinary effort but it is quite good to see a female lead having such a role in a tamil film. Trisha does justice to Mallika's role and it is a quite a convincing performance.

The film becomes quite predictable after the first half and becomes more fast paced quite near to the end. It seemed to me after introducing the main characters of the film the director wanted to just keep the story running he added some scenes which where not really required, I am not saying that the film dragged on but it could have been some what different. Like a flashback of Diwakar could have been interesting. Though Kamal is quite good at emotions I did not get the Father son relation between Diwakar and Vasu in this film , may be the comic part spoiled it. But then again this is a Thriller so there should be expectations for that kind of film.

Thoonga Vanam is an nice thriller , i cannot say it is awesome or one of the finest roles kamal ever has done. It is never the less strikingly different flick and Kamal proves yet again that he will make one of a kind films in tamil. This has all the elements which one would expect from a Kamal film, Social messages which are conveyed in a very subtle manner, the sarcastic comedy which the plot has woven into it. Overall a good film and a worthy competition  for this Diwali season