Thirteen years ago there was a film called Thambi,starring Madhavan and the film directed by Seeman,ran well because of its powerful dialogues and effective narration.Here comes another film carrying the same title.But this is totally different from the former because of its genre,relevance to the title and riveting narration.
Jeethu Joseph,the powerful maker of great Malayalm films like Detective,Memories, Drishyam and Oozham is not new to Tamil cinema.He has already become a name here,by his Papanasam which was a Tamil remake of his Drishyam and in which Kamalahasan took up the lead role of Mohanlal of the Malayalam original.Papanasam became very popular with the Tamil audience. So can Thambi,on account of its vigorous narration and suspense elements kept intact,till the climax.The film lives on its four powerful pillars Karthik,Satyaraj,Jothika and Jeethu Joseph.
Karthik Sivakumar does his title role with a clean mix up of natural ease,felicitous humour and power of muscles and mood.One can enjoy every shade of his breezy and buoyant role delivery. Satyaraj maintains his strong base and his energy levels in his screen presence.His demonstrative portrayal of roles was never found wanting in any of his films ever since he occupied the centre space in Tamil cinema.The climax of Thambi showing Satyaraj and Karthik in close confrontation,reflects how differently empowered these two actors of two generations are,in their grasp and control of contexts and their dynamism to fit into those contexts.This is the second time Satyaraj and Karthik come together after their memorable role play in Kadaikutti Singam.It is a meaty role for Satyaraj in Thambi and he meets it with consummate effortlessness in deliberation. Jyothika the dauntless performer of roles such as Naachiyaar and Raatchasi,perfectly steps into the role of the elder sister.It is a sweet experience to see Jyothika and Karthik as Sister and 'younger brother',without forgetting the fact that in real life too,they are elder brother's wife and husband's younger brother.
A special tribute to the last century's dynamic woman Sowcar Janaki,who paralyses paralysis,by her speechless perceptions of contexts through a perfect vision of what is happening around her.The way she looks at Karthik,her suppressed sense of suspicion about his bonafides,her mischievous and deliberate wheel chair fall to help him in time,are a real treat to watch.Three cheers to the old actress.Old is really more than gold.The same way,one has to say three cheers to Master Ashwant,who continues to remain a mini atom bomb for Kathik,until the poor boy gets sadly killed by an electrified fence.All other characters played by Nikhila Vimal, Bala,Harish Peradi,Ilavarasu and Anson Paul{the last two as cops,one corrupt and the other duty bound}will stay remembered.
A film lives by its narration of events and depiction of characters.Both are impressive in Thambi to make it worthwhile,as a piece of high end entertainment. Drishyam and its remake Papanasam were effective crime-cum action thrillers,strictly bound to their theme and course of narration without any room for other factors of entertainment.But Thambi is a sparkling show of humour,family emotions and demonstration of the power of those emotions,to reform a person's motives and mindset.The underlying link between Papanasam{Drishyam}and Thambi is the desperate urge to save some one from a deed of crime,helplessly committed and make sustained moves to bury all sorts of evidence of the crime.In this particular respect,one could see the addiction of a film maker to certain types of creative concepts,that stay more relevant to them,than others.
Jithu Joseph's creative formula centres around acts of crime,the genesis of crime and the cathartic developments that continue to hold on to the moment of a criminal act.Committing a crime is easy.But the ordeal of concealing the act of crime eats away one's peace of mind the rest of one's life,unless and until the criminal deed is done to death.This is what Jeethu Joseph has focused on,during the narration of both Papanasam and Thambi.But the latter is strewn with humour sparks in the first half and is amply action packed in its second half.One could say Jithu Joseph has combined in himself a little bit of popular Malayalam movie makers Fazil and Joshy in making Thambi more a family entertainer and action drama,than a mere crime thriller.
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