The Telugu film industry has quite often enriched Tamil cinema through dubbing and remake of its movies.The recent delightful addition in this regard is Thozha released simultaneously along with the Telugu version Oopiri {meaning breath}starring Nagarjuna and Karthi Sivakumar directed by Vamshi.P. The most beautiful thing about the film is the gracefully soothing course of narration, filled with healthy humor and clean thought. Nagarjuna as the imbecile ,wheel chair wealthy man, looks compact in every frame with looks of refinement and utmost niceties in character delivery.It is really enchanting to see him after a long time, when he performed robust romantic roles and action drama in films like Idhayathai Thirudaadhe,Udhayam Ratchagan and recently in Radha Mohan's Payanam.In Thozha,he comes as lovely breeze in most scenes and Karthi blends himself comfortably with Nagarjuna as high quality perfume mixed in fresh air.
Karthi simply excels in his role delivery as a lower middle class youth with its cheeky shades of behaviour, at every stage of interaction with others,be it his advocate Vivek or Tamannaah the girl who pulls his imagination at first sight, or his rich master-cum-brother-cum friend Nagarjuna.The hilarious scenes combining Karthi and Prakash Raj,with interesting references to the piece of painting drawn by Karthi, generate a lot of pure fun.Though there is no depth in the very brief flashback scenes pertaining to Nagarjuna's Parachute accident in Paris and his love for Anushka, a couple of dialogues on deriving fresh meaning for the concept of human love in general, adds a deeper dimension to the experience of love in terms of possessiveness,fear and longing.That one could look for anything including love, only where one seems to have lost it,speaks of the rejuvenation and relocation of life's realities.
There is sentiment but the sentiment is not overblown to make it melodramatic.All the good that Nagarjuna does for Karthi and his family, are indirect moves without any trace of emphatic demonstration of love, through dialogues or needless outbursts.The biggest positive side of the film is the director's sensible realization that there is no scope for stunt scenes in such a breezy movie.The other heart warming factor is the all pervading presence of positive energy, in a totally paralyzed character.There is no noise what so ever, except the musical component that seems to swallow the lyrics to a great extent. But the background score is quite good and a couple of melodies finely pass through the ears at the theater.
Vivek's sense of humor does exist in his veteran style, but his mood has perhaps undergone a beating after the sad and untimely death of his teen age son in real life.Similarly Kalapana who is no more, appears in a few scenes with exhausted looks, devoid of her comedy gusto and energizing role play. Tamannah quietly passes through her role with adequate charm and dignity,It was on the whole a time well spent, watching a breezy tale of brotherhood vibrantly told, with the exuberant role performance of Karthi and the charmingly subdued characterization of Nagarjuna, without even an iota of rivalry element between themselves.This unique film on a solid theme of mutually compassionate brotherhood, should definitely find a place in the archives of clean cinema.
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