Thadam is directed by Magizh Thirumeni, who has done only 3 other films in a career spanning almost 10 years. Infact, I remember seeing his first film “Munthinam Parthene” which was much ahead of its times and interesting too with catchy songs. This is his second film with Arun Vijay after "Thadaiyara Thaakka".
First thing I did after watching this film was to search online if Identical twins had the similar DNA – yes, they do have similar DNA. This is the premise of the film which is based on some real life incidents. Ezhil and Kavin (Arun Vijay in a dual role) live separately. Ezhil lives with his father and is an architect who runs his own business. Kavin is a street smart fraudster who does petty crimes along with Suruli (Yogi Babu) to earn a living. There is a romantic angle for both of them which was interesting though very slow. Meanwhile, the movie cuts into a scene where one of them kills a youngster named Avinash. The rest of the movie deals with how the cops (Vidya Pradeep as Malar) solve the murder and identify who among the twins was behind it.
The setting of Thadam is very interesting and it has scope for various twists and turns. The entire second half is full of such scenes except for the dragging flashback given to their mother (Sonia Agarwal in a half-baked role). Once set, the film is very fast in narration and grabs your attention. It also has a cliché climax twist, which is a brilliant one indeed.
Arun Vijay excels in both characters and shows minute nuances in the roles nicely. He looks fabulous in the action sequences. Tanya Hope (as Deepika) resembles Sameera Reddy in many shots. The cops (FEFSI Vijayan, Vidya Pradeep and others) have a large part to play and do their roles well. Technically, the film falls short in expectations. The cinematography and background score was very average. The stunt in the police station was choreographed well.
The negative aspects of the film is that it takes lot of time to set the ball rolling. The flashback and the reason for the twins to behave in this fashion is not satisfying. We are also not sure as to how Kavin knew about the arrest of his brother, when the entire incident was kept under the wraps. The gambling angle was also unnecessary.
If the director could have worked on these flaws and the flashback portions in a different way, Thadam would have been much better, on par with films like “Vikram Vedha”. Nevertheless, it’s a good watch.
Rating – 3.25/5
