Thalaivaa (2013)

A son steps into his father's shoes, has to win a bloody war before he becomes the leader.

Director:

Vijay

Writer:

Vijay

Stars:

Vijay, Amala Paul, Santhanam

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vijay	...	Vishwa Bhai
Amala Paul	...	Meera
Santhanam	...	Logu
Satyaraj	...	Anna
Ragini Nandwani	...	Gowri
Rajiv Pillai	...	Raju
Nasser	...	Ratnam
Abhimanyu Singh	...	Bhima
Y.G. Mahendran	...	Lawyer
Manobala
Ponvannan	...	Ranga
Suresh	...	Meera's Father
Tanu Vidyarthi	...	Unknown
Subbu Panchu	...	Ravi Kiran (as Panchu Subbu)
Rekha Mallick	...	Ganga Ramadurai (as Rekha)

Storyline

The film opens in the year 1988 with the death of Mumbai's King of Dharavi (Asia biggest slum) Varadarajan Mudaliar. Following his death, the rival group goes on a rampage and we are introduced to Anna (Satyaraj) who takes the job of protecting Varadarajan's Dharavi in his hands and letting his son Vishwa (Vijay) to be brought up in Australia. Over there he leads a dance troop and falls in love with Meera (Amala Paul). Later, Vishwa finds that Meera is a Mumbai cop and she pretend to be in love with him just to know about the locality of his father. His father is later killed by the scums of Mumbai and how Vishwa avenge his father's death and how he leads the Dharavi people forms the rest of the story.

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Plot Keywords:

father | son | leader | revenge | fight | 

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Taglines:

Time to Lead

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil Telugu

Release Date:

9 August 2013 (India)

Also Known As:

Anna: Born to Lead

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Box Office

Budget:

INR 450,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mishri Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

182 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The crew had planned to shoot extensively in Dharavi, Bombay which proved impossible thanx you actor Vijay 's popularity in the Tamil community.

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Goofs

In the song "Thalapathy Thalapathy", the lead offers his car keys (Mahindra Xuv 500) telling him that the car does not have a clutch. This is incorrect as that vehicle is available only in a manual transmission variant.

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Quotes

Vishwa: It's not in our behaviour to commit crime, but stopping it is our tradition.

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Connections

Spoofs Thuppakki (2012)

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Soundtracks

Tamil Pasanga
Produced by G.V. Prakash Kumar
Written by Na. Muthukumar
Performed by Benny Dayal and Sheezay Psycho Unit

User Reviews

Utter Disappointment with all obvious flaws

According to Irresistible force paradox "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" .This is best suited to flicks in which a successful director meets a successful actor. In this venture either one of them is bound to go out of their way to satisfy the other. In case of "Thalaiva", the director sacrifices and becomes a savior bigger than the one pictured throughout the film.

For how long will a savior be symbolized by a slow motioned- sun etched silhouette and a trademark dress that becomes the savior's uniform? This is one of the many questions that arose during the movie. There are many such obvious flaws which make the movie less interesting than it should have been.

For a start, the first half runs on two factors, the protagonist's romantic track and his dance competition. But, it doesn't take a genius to figure out how both the tracks are likely to end and this creates a vacuum between the viewers and the viewed. Santhanam tries to fill this vacuum but after a while, the "bro" factor loses its charm and becomes another speed breaker in the already slow screen play.

The second half is nothing but the old coffee brewed under a new outfit but the essence and odor remains the same. The unnecessary addition of characters (Australian gang that competes with Vijay) questions the credibility of the director, this is the first time that the director has used violence to this extent, the only reason being the hero himself.

Sathyaraj plays a calm mannered Don similar to Velu Naickar (Nayagan) but his presence is felt mostly through his chant "Anna" and his snapshots. Amala paul plays two shades of Grey in the two halves and ends up as the better half.

Actor Vijay should pay the same attention to the screenplay that he does to his character. After a rejuvenating success of "Thuppaki" that pulled in repeat audiences, this film is bound to disappoint. The flick lacks pace, never gives the audience a chance to guess, lacks a powerful villain and is scripted for the hero rather than being the other way around.

When Vijay and Santhanam are offered a hot drink, they identify it as Black Coffee but the chef calls it "RASAM" (Curry). The same goes for the movie.

Tamil Cinema desperately needs better scripts and powerful villains.

Until we get another Thuppaki, "I AM WAITING", thuppaki style.