Spoilers ahead…
The film is tonally uniform, which helps to maintain the mood. But by the end, it is further proof that these big-star movies are a kind of IIT entrance exam for directors.
In his recent interview with Galatta Plus, H Vinoth said that he doesn’t care as much about the “story” of his films as the “information” he can deliver about the milieu the narrative is set in. But ironically, the best part of Thunivu – apart from Nirav Shah’s very classy cinematography – is that story. You think it’s a heist. And then you realise it’s a heist within a heist. And then… let’s just say there’s a third layer. Had this premise been developed to its fullest, this would have been a cracker of a thriller instead of the generic Shankar-style vigilante action movie it ends up being – give or take a few updates from the Gentleman template. Ajith sports a white shirt, a white beard, and his stylish statement “this heist is mine” may be one of the coolest mass moments of the year.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/thunivu/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
brangan
January 5, 2023
Some amusement: So I got an email from this “well-wisher” (read, Ajith fan, probably) who very kindly did not want me to “make the mistake” of… Well, read on 😀 Psychoanalysts can have a field day picking this mail apart 😀
Not Important Name nameisnotimportantcontentis@gmail.com
Wed, Jan 4, 3:19 PM (16 hours ago)
Hi BR,
In a scene in Bigil, Rayappan calls his son to share a drink and give him a hug after they had an argument earlier. This father-son scene seemed to have resonated with you (along with a few other scenes like Michael feeling like hitting a conservative brahmin guy who wouldn’t allow his wife to play and Micheal feeling vulnerable, like an underdog, in the climax) and perhaps had skewed your assessment of the movie.
I got reminded of this when I heard that Varisu is also about father-son sentiments. I hope such a skew doesn’t happen again since I expect Varisu to be underwhelming and Thunivu to be better received, both critically and commercially.
Just felt like giving you a heads-up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
therag
January 5, 2023
@brangan, this looks one of your well-wishers playing a prank here. “True” Ajith/VJ fans are not such a reasonable lot, sending a polite email and all.
LikeLiked by 2 people
AnAnnoyedFan
January 5, 2023
I wish all producers also realize that name is not important content is
LikeLiked by 2 people
H. Prasanna
January 5, 2023
Ooh such a juicy email. I already think this email is going to be the best thing to come out of the movie. Do share more if you receive such mails/DMs, BR!
Anyway, the sum-up of the email seems to be: “Don’t let your feelings affect how you feel about the movie, BR.” Come on, BR, you are better than that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bala
January 5, 2023
Funny guy, but, i think his point is to not let your sub-conscious bias not affect your judgement of the movie. I think i had similar questions a few years back (probably for a maniratnam movie), that do you have any mechanisms to break subconscious bias.
For eg, in the company i work for, the interviewers are discouraged from talking to other interviewers till we finish our interview feedback(so that we are not biased by their opinion), others feedback is not available until we enter our own feedback, we are discouraged from asking ice-breakers like which language do you speak, or which city are you from (even though at times, this can ease the candidate, these can influence us), encouraged to take notes as we speak, but enter the feedback at least 3 hours later but within 24 hours (so that we some immediate extreme feelings are subsided). Of course it is impossible to eliminate sub-conscious bias, but we can minimize it with such mechanisms. Would be interesting to know if you practice something like that.
LikeLike
Bala
January 5, 2023
*not let your sub-conscious bias affect you judgement…
LikeLike
Bala
January 5, 2023
*not let your sub-conscious bias affect your judgement
LikeLike
hari
January 5, 2023
Two movies from the two bigger superstar of Tamizh Film World – thala and thalapathy, and one cannot stand even the trailers for 2 minutes. Such is the state of Tamizh movies, sigh.
Bala, ungalukku oru unma therinjaaganuma 🙂
LikeLike
vijay
January 5, 2023
How many have the ‘Thunivu’ here to watch this night beggar’s flick FDFS?
LikeLiked by 1 person
kaizokukeshav
January 5, 2023
@brangan : “(read, Ajith fan, probably)”
Well may be the e-mailer just want to convey that he wants to see the reviews like how he would want to be seen himself “not as an Ajith fan but a ‘content’ fan”…
But how did the resonance in the Bigil scenes has ‘skewed’ BR’s mind, isn’t it more in-tune ? The email needs to be more elaborate about the social rhetoric that he wants to convey.
LikeLike
H. Prasanna
January 5, 2023
@Bala Subconscious bias, as the name indicates, is subconscious, can’t do anything about it. It affects everything we do.
Similar to your example though, I think BR said in an interview he tries to know as little as possible about a movie before watching it. As for someone like Mani Ratnam or any director, knowing about their work makes the experience richer and I feel he is better for it as he can write in more depth.
LikeLike
hari prasad
January 5, 2023
Hope Ajith doesn’t rob the money from the bank to fund poor kids that need immediate medical attention like a Shankar vigilante hero.
LikeLike
KayKay
January 5, 2023
Wait! An Ajith movie that DOESN’T start with a “V”?
Romba Risk Edukkaranga!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Rahini David
January 5, 2023
Kaykay: Apparently he has the thunivu to do that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
kaizokukeshav
January 5, 2023
The trailer is giving “Beast” vibes. Too many coincidences like a hostage situation in one building, protagonist is indirectly taking down politicians, military attacks etc.
LikeLike
Bala
January 5, 2023
my guess on the story.. multiple small gangs are independently doing small petty thefts. Ajith joins one of them, then convinces all gangs to work together to perform one massive bank robbery so that all of them can settle once and for all. he leads them to the bank and creates a hostage situation. The gangs turn on each other, and eventually all of them get caught by the police, ie samudhira kani.. at which point it is revealed that ajith is an under cover cop, working with samudhira kani from the beginning and giving him tips. it was all a master plan to catch all the gangs red handed, as previously there was no evidence against them. The mirror image of mankatha..
LikeLiked by 1 person
hari prasad
January 5, 2023
Why does every Ajith movie had to sound like that rasipalan in the daily calendar like
மேஷம் – வீரம்
ரிஷபம் – விஸ்வாசம்
மிதுனம்- வலிமை
கடகம் – ஆரம்பம்
சிம்மம் – நேசம்
துலாம் – துணிவு
விருச்சிகம் – அட்டகாசம்
தனுசு – அமர்க்களம்
மகரம் – நேர்க்கொண்ட பார்வை
கும்பம் – விவேகம்
மீனம் – ஆசை
Heck , he even did a movie called ” ராசி”.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Caesium
January 6, 2023
@hari prasad: ROTFL 🤣 🙏🏼
LikeLike
Faroo
January 6, 2023
Ajit likely wants to give the vibe of a enjoying playing the “bad man” — but the dialog delivery just sounds creepy.
The last scene in the trailer was quite tense though — I thought the chair was really going to tip over!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Raghu Narayanan
January 6, 2023
“Subconscious bias, as the name indicates, is subconscious, can’t do anything about it.”
This could be slightly off track for this thread, but the above statement is debatable, no? Especially the ‘can’t do anything’ part. So once you become aware of the subconscious bias, it is no more subconscious and so no more beyond our control. We will then be able to take steps to correct it, if required. It is a question of being aware or conscious of the bias.
LikeLiked by 1 person
MANK
January 6, 2023
KayKay bro AK has exhausted all the V words, now onto T i guess
The film looks like Dog Day Afternoon on steroids. BTW what the hell is Manju Warrier doing in this film. Maybe she is planning to renovate her house and can use the money.
Surprisingly, Ajith is not referred to as Thala anymore in the credits. That’s refreshing. I’m tired of seeing these thalapathi, rocking star , challenging star, megapowerstar and complete actor tags.
LikeLiked by 2 people
hari prasad
January 6, 2023
No , The Thala moniker made its only appearance in Mankatha , since it was his 50th movie.
Before that there was Aasai Nayagan , Lucky Star and Ultimate Star.
LikeLike
brangan
January 6, 2023
Does anyone remember the post where we tried to recall when Ajith moved to the top rung and became THALA? There were a lot of comments in that thread…
LikeLike
hari prasad
January 6, 2023
I think it was a post on how Vedalam became a monster hit despite the 2015 Chennai floods or I may be wrong.
LikeLike
Rambo
January 6, 2023
I feel like Mr.Not Important Name does not have to worry. I think this is one Vijay film that BR can be quite honest about. Usually I feel like BR looks for some positives even in the terrible Vijay movies to keep the fan’s from going mental. This film seems to have been abandoned by the Vijay fans. So he doesn’t have to hold back. But who knows – maybe its a classic! Its supposed to be based on Largo Winch series I read somewhere. As for Thunivu – trailer looks so full of cliched characters and scenarios it feels like a dud. But Vinoth can do a decent job of story telling. So maybe it works? Imagine if both films ended up being decent. Nothing like a bit of pre-pongal optimism.
LikeLike
H. Prasanna
January 6, 2023
@Raghu Narayanan Fair enough. I meant that since it is subconscious, though we act on it and change it, we will always have some biases.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Raghu Narayanan
January 6, 2023
“we will always have some biases”
Yes. This is so. Even though, by becoming aware of our biases, we can change our perspective it will only be a limited change. Our biases are like a tree which we have nurtured and grown all our lives with roots deeply embedded in the fertile field of our likes and dislikes. To be entirely rid of our biases, we might have to get out of the tree and find our ‘Buddha’ so to say… 🙂
LikeLike
therag
January 7, 2023
On the bright side, I’m liking “Kasethaan Kadavulada” from the Thunivu soundtrack. Good to see Ghibran back in the fray.
LikeLike
praneshp
January 8, 2023
@hari prasad: I’m pretty sure the Thala moniker has been around pre-mankatha. For example, there is a scene in VTV where Simbu tells Ganesh something like “thala ajith ku thaan sir intha story correct a irukum”
@MANK: He asked for the word to be dropped a couple of years ago https://twitter.com/SureshChandraa/status/1465969987806392325?s=20
LikeLiked by 1 person
hari prasad
January 8, 2023
Ya , people used to call Ajith ” Thala” on and off screen , but only in Mankatha it made an appearance in the title card…
LikeLike
Sri Prabhuram
January 11, 2023
Just came out of the late night premiere (US) and I must say that I was entertained for the first hour or so. However, I felt that the film went overboard with its flashbacks (as I feared) and it kept piling on with twist after twist to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore.
I feel that Vinoth is still struggling to make that Hollywood style action film while making us emotionally care enough for the characters on screen (without making the experience sappy).
LikeLiked by 1 person
vijay
January 11, 2023
“I feel that Vinoth is still struggling to make that Hollywood style action film”..
…and folks still trying to catch FDFS or premiere shows of his Ajith films knowing all this.. 🙂
LikeLike
Jay Krishnan
January 11, 2023
Wait till you see Manju Warrier’s malayalam ventures of the recent past.
LikeLike
Thunivu
January 13, 2023
I might be in the minority here and sound reductive but, Thunivu >>>>> Vikram. H Vinoth >>>>> Lokesh.
LikeLike
Shankar
January 14, 2023
Just came back from watching this film. On the way home all I could think of was how Vinita might have approached Thala for this project:
Vinoth: Sir, oru super kadhai irukku…1 line narration kekkareengala?
Ajith: Sollunga Sir….
Vinoth: Tratratratratrattratratratratttttttt (gunfire), over Sir…
Ajith: Ada, idhu rombha different a irukke, develop pannalame!
Kaasedhan Kadavulada….makkaloda kaasedhan addikalanda!! Thaangala!!
LikeLike
brangan
January 16, 2023
I think this has as much to do with the fear of the directors than Ajith/Vijay themselves.
Lokesh asked Vijay to play an alcoholic responsible for the death of two kids. He played that character and the film was a big hit. Gautham asked Ajith to play a man who spends half a movie bonding with is ex-fiancee’s daughter. He played that character. And now, Ajith is doing a film with Vignesh Shivn, who is hardly a “mass” director (and whose black humour is not exactly family friendly).
So why do they yes to the other underwhelming films that they do? Vijay saying yes to BEAST was quite something — a black-humour guy like Nelson, who did DOCTOR, and is proposing a hostage-crisis movie. On paper, this is hardly a “safe mass choice”. But the film did not come out well. So who’s more to blame: Vijay or Nelson?
A lot of people in the industry have told me that once you get the okay from Vijay, he does exactly what the director asks. I have heard similar things about Ajith. Heck, NERKONDA PAARVAI is hardly a “safe” film if all you want is to do heroic things and bring in the masses.
I am not saying these actors are blameless. But maybe VARISU is a BEAST-like situation, where the narration ended up better than the film. Maybe we have to consider the role of the filmmakers, too, in perpetuating mediocrity rather than just blaming these two actors.
LikeLike
brangan
January 16, 2023
To add to the above, the biggest problem in top Indian actors is that they listen to narrations rather than read the screenplay. Anyone can juice up a narration, but the true film — on a minute by minute basis — lies in the screenplay. And unless they learn how to do that, the chances of going wrong >> getting it right.
I just said Ajith/Vijay are known for not interfering. I have heard of heroes who do a LOT of interfering — but that is for my memoir 😛
LikeLiked by 2 people
MANK
January 16, 2023
But didn’t GVM tell you that Vijay kept on sending him dvds of his previous films to add more mass scenes into Yohan script after he had committed to the film. The main reason why the film did not get made in the end.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Heisenberg
January 16, 2023
I imagine story narration to Vijay or Ajith is similar to the famous Sathyaraj comedy (Andha kolandhaiye neenga dhan sir). If the narrative ticks few boxes (read – dance and some vague political punches for Vijay, walking and bike chase for Ajith) they are satisfied to do the movie. It could be written by Bala or GVM, as long as they get to do these things they would star in any setting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
KK
September 20, 2023
I may be in the minority here but I did like Thunivu. And it was nice to see someone who was an incidental hero who didn’t mind killing policemen or coast guards to save his own ass in a major motion picture by a major star. And more importantly the preachiness came more across as the Devil trying to humiliate the boss further by exposing the scam.
LikeLike
Rahul
September 21, 2023
There was a time when the all-powerful secretary of film stars used to make decisions not just about dates but also about the films the stars would sign. Should it not make sense for actors to hire specialists to evaluate scripts? Someone who understands them, the business, and the craft of filmmaking. Surely, there must be a combination of money and people available to make this endeavor viable.
LikeLike