Sign in Subscribe

This Week: Who Does He Think Is? - THUNIVU and NANPAKAL NERATHU MAYAKKAM

Christopher Kaiser

• 3 min read
An older man with mostly white hair, but stylish and cool with dark sunglasses.
The mysterious "Dark Devil" of Thunivu / Image courtesy Red Giant Movies
Overview:
Thunivu - Recommended, ***
Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam - Highly Recommended, ****

Thunivu

India (Tamil language), 2023, d. H Vinoth, 2h26m, In theaters now

A bank heist in Chennai is immaculately planned. 6 heavily armed men will strike the front and the back of the bank at once, placing bombs to prevent security personnel from escaping. At the time of the heist, the police will be busy with the governor's event 10 minutes away. And the best part: the bank has not complied with cash-on-hand regulations, so as long as they only take 500 crores (or 5 billion) rupees, the bank will be forced to say the robbers were turned away without taking anything.

Indian action films frequently abandon physics in pursuit of the most entertaining film plotting, so the prospect of an Indian heist film comes with an expectation for twists-and-turns at a fast-and-furious rate. And Thunivu delivers, with a twist coming seemingly every 10 minutes, starting with the first one: when the first heist is taken over by a 2nd heist already-in-progress by "the Dark Devil", played by Tamil megastar Ajith Kumar. The soundtrack will make sure you know Kumar is famous, as it boldly chants "A.K.! A.K.!" Indian cinema is so star-driven, that this film is also referred to as AK61 (as in, Ajith Kumar's 61st film).

Eventually the unnamed anti-hero of A.K. is revealed to be an actual hero, and the true villains are, of course, the banks who have squandered poor villagers' meager savings, adding a "Robin Hood" twist to an already convoluted plot which manages to also juggle two different police forces at odds with each other, and several TV reporters vying to get the best "scoops". Once the twists run out, Thunivu is left with a boat chase meant to be a mega-climax spectacle, but unfortunately at this point I felt numb to the sound of machine gun fire, higher caliber or not. But everything up to this point is pure, gloriously dumb fun.

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam

India (Malayalam/Tamil language), 2023. d. Lijo Jose Pelissery, 1h45m, In theaters now

A bus full of Malayali pilgrims in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu begins to make its overnight journey home. One of the most outspoken passengers, James, gets on everyone's nerves by making the driver turn off the lively Tamil movie songs in favor of slower Malayalam "classics".

Many hours into the journey, with all of the passengers now napping, James wakes up and bids the drive to pull over, ostensibly to relieve himself. Only he never returns; he keeps walking and walking through fields into a small Tamil village he seems to have seen from a distance. He shocks a small village family by walking into their house and knowing all their names, making himself at home. The James we saw earlier wouldn't have been able to speak Tamil at all. Meanwhile, the other bus passengers wake up and wonder why they're stopped. The bus driver explains and a search party is formed, to track James down and bring him back to the bus.

A group of people walk together through a peaceful village.
It takes a village, in Lijo Jose Pellissery's latest tale. Image courtesy Wayfarer FIlms

If all you have seen of Indian cinema so far are the crowd-pleasing action blockbusters, you owe it to yourself to see this delightful little drama of magical realism and absurd comedy. Every tableau is strikingly composed, every corner of the frame packed with detail. A much smaller budget film than most, the well-admired veteran director Lijo Jose Pellissery wrings every cent of budget by filming in a real village putting many non-actors into their first (and likely only) movie. An original soundtrack is foregone for a nostalgic, diegetic soundtrack of old Tamil movie songs playing on TVs and radios in the background.

Do not expect a major reveal or explanation and you will not be disappointed with this film. It is not a riddle to be answered, but a fable to be learned from. The journey - or rather the detour - is the story. And despite the relatively short running time, there is still a perfectly placed intermission to give you your own time to digest life's little mysteries.

Next Week:

INFINITY POOL - With Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth joining forces with the Son of Cronenberg, one expects his most disturbing sci-fi horror opus yet.

PATHAAN - And the biggest star of Indian cinema makes his long-awaited return after a lengthy hiatus. Fun fact: Shah Rukh Khan is 3 years younger than Tom Cruise. So he said, I could do a Mission: Impossible...