Film Review 'Thambi': A tight thriller with ample twists and turns

Thambi is the first movie in which he shares screen space with his sister-in-law Jyotika where they play siblings. The film opens with a teenager named Saravanan snorting cocaine sitting atop a lorry on his birthday and his friend Manimaran (Bala) tries to dissuade him and take him back home. After a struggle, Mani strikes Saravanan with an iron rod on his head and he faints. Fifteen years later, his father Gnanamoorthy (Sathyaraj), a local politician gets a call from Goa police saying that they have found their son Saravanan, who is a localguide and goes by the pseudonym Vicky (Karthi).

Vicky has a long list of criminal records to his name, which is cleared by Gnanamoorthy, who takes him back to their hometown Coonoor. From then on the first half of the film is about how Saravanan is accepted by his family members and villagers except for his sister Parvathy (Jyotika), his deaf and mute grandmother (Parvathy) and the local police inspector Karan and Saravanan’s childhood friend (Anson Paul). Saravanan wins their hearts with humour and those scenes are enjoyable. Simultaneously, he faces a few hurdles that build up for an exciting second half.

The second half of Thambi makes the film a winner. With numerous twists to the plot and an unpredictable climax provide us an edge-of-the seat entertainer. After a long time in Tamil cinema, we get to see a flashback towards the climax that doesn’t complicate the plot. There is a specific flashback portion in the film that reminds us of Jeethu Joseph’s Papanasam. With power-packed performers like Sathyaraj, Jyotika and Karthi, all we looked for is a neat script and narrative, which Jeethu has achieved.

The 149-minute film lags in some places, especially as many as three songs in the first half becoming quite tedious as it overshadows some good humour in the film. Govind Vasantha’s music stands out in Karthi-Sowcar Janaki encounters. The songs could have provided us with a feel-good-factor if they were a part of narratives and not asstandalones. Thambi is a decent watch if you overlook the grind in the first half.