Arjun and his two friends make a living out of conning people for a few thousands and are quite good at it. When Arjun falls for a girl, Michelle, he agrees to Deva’s plan of stepping up to nail a big con job so that he can help her from financial stress. The con job sets off a chain of events that lead to a riveting cat-and-mouse game with a heist at its fulcrum.
Language:
Tamil
Running Time:
135 min
Rating:
U
Release date:
13 March 2015
Directed by:
A. G. Amid
Produced by:
Senthil Veeraasamy
Written by:
A. G. Amid
Starring:
Veera Bahu
Regina Cassandra
Aadukalam Naren
Ajai Prasath
Darbuka Siva
Ilavarasu
Pattiyal K Shekar
Music by:
G. V. Prakash Kumar
Shot by:
SR Kathiir
Editing by:
Praveen Antony
Distributed by:
Fox Star Studios

What’s Hot

  • After his outstanding portrayal of a rugged maniac in Nadunisi Naaygal, Veera has come back with a role oozing urban charm & charisma in Rajathandhiram. Subtle changes in body language when submitting himself to the antagonist and when captaining his team reveal the actor in him.
  • Timing is extremely essential to make comedy work and in that sense, the debutant Darbuka Siva is a natural. While the film is pretty serious throughout, Darbuka’s retorts and one-liners complement his friends’ serious demeanor superbly. He lights up the proceedings whenever given screen space which is outstanding for such a young actor.
  • The heroine, Michelle (Regina Cassandra) while having very less screen-time does have some purpose associated with her and is not just running behind the hero. Her expressions during her confrontation with Arjun are brilliant. Ajai Prasath who plays the role of the greedy friend also impresses with his underplay for most of the running time.
  • ‘Pattiyal’ Sekar impresses as the prime antagonist in the film with almost a Radharavi-esque screen presence & voice. Ace character artists ‘Aadukalam’ Naren and Ilavarasu once again prove that minimal screen time is adequate for masters like them to make an impact.
  • For a film with one song with a duration of 135 Minutes, the background score needs to be top-notch to sustain interest & thrill & Sandeep Chowta certainly lives up to his name. With most of the scenes set indoors, Kathir excels with his camera through some fabulous filtered lighting through the well-designed windows. Multiple sequences of split-frame have been cleverly used to move the story forward by the editor, Praveen Antony.
  • Writer-Director Amid looks to be man who knows his craft as he closes all the open loops pretty well. He has a good sense of humour too siding ever so slightly towards sarcasm. This is evident when he places a non-descript guy, woken up by the confrontation between Arjun & Michelle and gives him a chance to fully listen to their argument & finally go back to sleep after realizing the futility of it all. Charming indeed!

What’s Not

  • “Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating”, says Pixar. While it is grossly unfair to say that the director has cheated us, the fact that things fall in line on too many occasions does seem to take the mickey out in the end. While the forced moral-abiding ending does disappoint us, our frustrations must be vented at those responsible for the rules for getting a ‘U’ and not the producer or the director.

Badges

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

With apt casting, perfect pacing & casual realistic dialogues, Rajathanthiram is a compactly made thriller with a heist at its fulcrum, that needs to be hailed for sticking only to the main plot & never compromising for the so called ‘commercial considerations’.