Thittam Irandu Movie Review: Aishwarya Rajesh’s film has an important message but gets it wrong

Director Vignesh Karthick’s Thittam Irandu begins on a realistic note. Athira (Aishwarya Rajesh) gets into a private sleeper bus only to find that she has to share the pod with an unknown man, who is later introduced as Arjun (Subhash Selvam). But, love blossoms between Athira and Arjun after multiple meet-ups. While Athira is a cop, Arjun is an aspiring actor.

10 minutes into the story, we are introduced to the conflict. Athira’s childhood friend Surya (Ananya Ramprasad) is missing. Few days into the investigation, Athira and her team find a charred dead body in a burnt car. Forensic declares that it is Surya’s dead body. Athira refuses to believe the reports and starts her quest to find out who the killer is. The investigation reveals multiple subplots and twists.

Director Vignesh Karthick has crafted a neat thriller with a solid story in place. What works in favour of the film is that the conflicts are introduced at constant intervals to make sure that one doesn’t get bored of the investigation process. However, there are some crazy coincidences, which needed to be looked past.

Here's the trailer:

Thittam Irandu runs for less than 2 hours and that is a major advantage for a thriller. The screenplay is crisp without any unwanted subplots. The film also warrants your full attention to dialogues till the end. The last act (20 minutes) is when the loose ends converge and Aishwarya Rajesh’s Athira understands what had happened.

Thittam Irandu also deals with a sensitive topic. It talks about how society doesn’t accept queer people and the mental trauma that they are put through. This is where the film falters too. While dealing with such a topic, how you convey the intentions of a queer person is of utmost importance. Here, the director has taken a clichéd route that involves cheating on the pretext of love. This makes you question the intention of the character instead of empathising with them.

Aishwarya Rajesh as a cop is almost perfect for the role. Her eyes convey the expressions and it is effective for a thriller like Thittam Irandu. However, at times, she isn’t brisk while dealing with a high-profile case. Subhash, Gokul Anand and Ananya have delivered solid performances that helped in keeping the audience engrossed in the story.

The relationships in the film, especially Surya and her husband Kishore’s (Gokul Anand), are too good to be true. The same goes for Surya and Athira. The story makes sense only in the last dialogue and one needs to have patience till the final dialogue to understand the story.

Cinematographer Gokul Benoy’s work is quite impressive. Since most of the scenes are shot at the night, the lighting plays a major role and it surely enhanced the feel of the film. Sathish Raghunathan’s music and background score were apt for the film.

Overall, director Vignesh should be commended for taking a sensitive topic as the core idea. However, he could have had a much deeper understanding of the issue to showcase it to the audience.

2.5 out of 5 stars for Thittam Irandu.

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