‘Raghu Thatha’ film assessment: Keerthy Suresh stands tall on this light-hearted satire

A nonetheless from ‘Raghuthatha’

The opening stretch of Raghu Thathatakes us again to the ‘60s. Even because the opening credit roll, we’re proven newspaper clippings of essential developments in that interval. Anti-Hindi slogans and protests are rampant in Tamil Nadu, a state that’s furiously vocal towards the imposition of Hindi. Indira Gandhi has taken over as the primary lady Prime Minister of the nation, one thing that ought to ideally given girls throughout the nation much more confidence and freedom.

However that’s not the case for Kayalvizhi, rising up in Valluvanpettai, a small village in Tamil Nadu. Once we first see Kayalvizhi (Keerthy Suresh), she’s carrying a shirt. She tells her mom who asks her to decorate correctly: “Ponna adakamalan iruka mudiyathu’” (I’m not all in favour of being a correct girl). There’s defiance in her voice, and what stands out — proper in that very first dialogue itself — is how Kayal doesn’t even await her mom to finish her sentence and retorts instantly with a convincing ‘no’.

It’s virtually like she has heard that line many occasions in her life.

She’s going to hear it once more, a lot later within the movie, when a wedding proposal comes knocking at her doorways, a lot towards her needs. She tells the boy’s father, “Mandaya odachuduven” (I’ll crack your head open). Kayalvizhi is used to being informed to tone it down, and “behave like a woman” and he or she may have none of it.

This rebellious streak spills over to her life in public too. She is on the forefront of anti-Hindi protests at her village, which ends up in the closure of a Hindi prachar sabha on the town, thus upsetting just a few folks.

Kayalvizhi has bought this streak from her grandfather, performed by MS Bhaskar, who continues his journey in Tamil cinema in prime type. Right here in Raghu Thatha, titled so due to the comical one-liner from the 1981 Tamil movie Indru Poi Naalai Vaa, the ‘thatha’ character is curiously of prime significance. He has a detailed bond along with his granddaughter Kayal, a lot stronger than her ties together with her personal dad and mom, and desires her to do one thing a lot towards her needs. Will she?

The most important plus about Raghu Thatha is its irreverence and humour. Even a barely critical sequence is infused with a liberal dose of humour, and that doesn’t come from the leads alone. There may be Kayal’s brother’s spouse who will get little or no display screen time, however finally ends up having the whole corridor applauding ultimately together with her wit. There are two small-town criminals who steal the scene in a single explicit section. And naturally, there’s MS Bhaskar delivering poker-faced humorous strains at times that crack you up.

However the moviemight have carried out away with a whole lot of the preliminary parts of dialog between Kayal and Selvam (Ravindra Vijay). Ravindra Vijay is convincing along with his efficiency, however his change of perspective throughout the course of the movie will not be defined as clearly it should be.

Raghu Thatha is directed by Suman Kumar, who has earlier written hit collection like The Household Man and Farzi.The movie’s laidback method within the first half is made up by a roller-coaster 20 minutes ultimately, which brings a smile to your face. There’s additionally music composer Sean Roldan having a whole lot of enjoyable with the tunes; the music offers a pleasant flavour to the narrative (‘Poruthhiru Selva’, sung by SP Charan, deserves a particular shout out. Don’t all of us miss SPB?)

And in the course of all that is Keerthy Suresh, who dishes yet one more compelling efficiency. There’s one thing pure about Keerthy right here, which makes even message-laden sequences appear much less heavy. A lot of the movie is her simply… being. If that’s not the signal of a stable efficiency, what’s?

Raghu Thatha is presently working in theatres