THALAIVI (2021)

Critic No. 239

Director: Vijay

Written by: K.V.Vijayendran Prasad, Vijay

Produced by: Zee Studios, Vibri Motion Pictures, Karma Media and Entertainment, Gothic Entertainment, Sprint Films

Casts: Kangana Renaut, Arvind Swami, Nassar, Samuthirakani, Thambi Ramaiah, Madhoo, Shamna Kassim

Music: G.V.Prakash Kumar

Language: Tamil

Genre: Biography, Drama

SYNOPSIS: 

‘Thalaivi’ is a biopic that traces Tamil Nadu ex-chief minister, late Jayalalithaa’s (Kangana Ranaut) inspirational journey from her arrival as a young actor in the world of Tamil cinema who reaches new heights of superstardom and eventually becomes Thalaivii- a powerful figure in the world of politics. 

REVIEW:

An iconic figure in Indian politics, Jayalalithaa’s political journey is known to many who have been following the news closely for decades. Famous Indian films such as Iruvar (1997) and Queen (2019) series have shown some interesting aspects of Jayalalitha’s life but Thalaivi focuses on a particularly important moment, spanning across the years 1965 till 1990. With a booming kick-off scene in the parliament where Jayalalitha takes an oath to sit in the chief minister’s seat, the film races through an intense yet tender tale of the late leader. 

Director Vijay attempts to unravel her icy cold persona and look at her as a woman passionately driven by love. Even thorough the film is treated as a ‘mass’ commercial biopic which sees her through the political challenges, the real heart of the tale is her unconditional love for MGR, despite the societal contempt of her. The scenes where they indulge in phone conversations without uttering a single word but letting their silence do the talking are heartbreaking. The film essentially works for me for its poignant love story. Yes, at no scene they say blatantly to each other that they love each other but their complex yet the beautiful relationship is told poetically by Vijay. The political episodes are written well as well with detail and the MJR's funeral segment was very well executed, recreating the most heartbreaking day in Indian politics with great detail.

In Iruvar, if you noticed, Mani Ratnam took a lot of creative liberty by not using the real names of the people, including the Jayalalitha character, who was more of a supporting character in the film that focused on the friendship between MGR and Karunanidhi. In Thalaivi, we see an interesting mix of fact and fiction. For instance, MGR is called MJR, RM Veerappan is called RN Veerappan, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is called Tamil Makkal Kazhagam and yet Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi are used as the original. The reason is best known to the team but this film was the closest it got in convincing us that what we see is what happened.

The film is filled with very good performances. Both Nasser and Thambi Ramaiah play their parts wonderfully with the former capturing the voice essence of Karunanidhi quite well. But of course, the film revolves around MJR-Jayalalitha's story with RN Veerappan at the other end of the triangle. RNV is played wonderfully by Samuthirakani, be it as the menacing, protective associate of MJR or the soft politician in the end who decides to support Jayalalitha after a humiliation caused by the opposition, he is terrific. Shamna does a brief but neat execution of Sasikala with one important line that made me smile. At one scene, she says, ‘Inimae ellam naan pathukuren’ (I will take care of everything from now onwards). When you look back at reality, sounds more like a threat than a promise. 

We all know how good is Kangana in carrying out as a bold woman and she is perfect as Jayalalitha. Be it the young playful, naive actress to the electrifying politician who enthralls everyone with her speech at the parliament, Thalaivi is a perfect project for Kangana to reach for her fourth National Award. The biggest surprise for me was the super charming Arvind Swami who got into the skin of MGR so perfectly. 

Technically Thalaivi is a pure gem that looks very rich in terms of projecting each era in front of our eyes so realistically with much accuracy. Kudos to Vishal Vittal (cinematographer), S Rama Krishna, Monika Niggotre (production designers), and Neeta Lulla (costume designer) for recreating the era so beautifully. G.V.Prakash’s songs are just average but he heavy lifts the film’s significant story beats with his rousing score. 

The only problem I had is the lack of some coherence in the second half where the timeline jumps quite a bit with some subplots hanging and the break between MJR and Jayalalitha deserved more time and detail rather than a brief scene in the private airplane. As the film was taken in various languages, despite Kangana’s great performance, the lip-sync are really out which really affects the impact of some crucial scenes. There are also inevitable corny fictional scenes like when a little girl calls Jayalalitha ‘akka’ and she’s told that she’s not ‘akka’ but that she’s ‘amma’. And also the little girl who begged in the street coming back as a doctor to treat her, in the end, feels really out of the factual mood the film traveled in. 

That said, for me, Thalaivi even though had a few fictional elements added to it, worked as a good biopic of the most celebrated iron lady of Tamilnadu. It is good to see a talented actor like Vijay bouncing back after a decade and I really hope he does more good projects that are driven by his heart than commercial aspects which had muddled his career for a long time. 

VERDICT:

Elevated by Kangana’s electrifying performance, director Vijay bounces back with an engaging, intense biopic of the most celebrated iron lady of Tamil Nadu.

CELLULOID METER- 3.5/5: