Tharai Thappattai

2/1/2016

Bala's explorations into the dark side of human nature have worked better when they have had a strong context and were an inherent part of the plot. Pithamagan's Sithan was brought up in a graveyard and he acted as drug mule, so the tragic fates that people close to him meet was unavoidable. Similarly, the visually-challenged Hamsavalli of Naan Kadaval, who is forced into begging, seeks for her deliverance, which comes in the form of the Aghori, Rudhran. But when he has used it as just a plot device to bring his story to an end, the result has been unconvincing, as we saw in Avan Ivan, where the villain enters the lives of the protagonists to change its course. Thaarai Thappattai, too, has a villain, Karuppaiah (RK Suresh, who is a superb addition to Bala's roster of menacing movie vill