ARUN VIJAY STEALS THE SHOW

Thadam is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Magizh Thirumeni and produced by Inder Kumar. The film stars Arun Vijay in a double role along with Tanya Hope, Smruthi Venkat, and Vidya Pradeep in the lead roles. The music was composed by Arun Raj, with cinematography done by Gopinath and editing by N. B. Srikanth. Thadam marks the Tamil debut of Hope and the film debut of Venkat. 

The film revolves around two lookalike men, Ezhil and Kavin. While Ezhil is a construction businessman leading a peaceful life, Kavin is a thief who spends most of time gambling and conning. One night, when both are having a hard time, one of them breaks into a man's house and brutally kills him. When the investigation begins, an evidence leads to the cops capturing Ezhil, before they also come across Kavin and find themselves looking for the real murderer among the two as they dig deeper into the investigation.

PLOT

Ezhil is a construction businessman while his lookalike Kavin is a gambling thief who deceives people along with his sidekick Suruli. A girl named Ananthi loves Kavin, unaware of his real identity. One day, Kavin tries to help Suruli pay his debt by extracting money from Ananthi through lies, but she helps him in spite of knowing the truth. After taking the money, Kavin is enraged and so is Ezhil after a party. That night, one of them breaks into a house and attacks the owner Akash, stabbing him to death. The next day, Kavin frees Suruli by paying his debt and wins Ananthi's trust by returning her money and telling her the truth. However, as the investigation of Akash's murder proceeds, a selfie clicked by a couple nearby is found with either of Ezhil or Kavin in it. Both Ezhil and Kavin are brought in and investigated without their knowledge of each other's existence. Gopalakrishnan, an inspector who shares an old rivalry with Ezhil, tortures him. Ezhil reveals his car broke down, and a call taxi driver helped him. Kavin, on the other hand, cites various laws to escape torture. Sub-inspector Malarvizhi is assigned to solve the case. She reaches out to Akash's friend and shows him the photograph of Ezhil/Kavin but he refuses to recognize him. She also questions Suruli and tells him not to leave city without permission, but he secretly escapes.

Malarvizhi then learns of the rivalry between Ezhil and Gopalakrishnan; Ezhil helped the latter's daughter elope with her lover, much against her father's wishes. The forensic expert informs Malarvizhi about a hair sample recovered from the crime scene and how it doesn't match anyone else in Akash's home. At the police station, Ezhil tries to escape but is interrupted by Kavin. The two violently fight, hurting everyone and vandalizing the station in the process. Kavin and Ezhil are revealed to be identical twins after their DNA is found identical and both confess about the same; they parted ways when their parents divorced. Kavin went with his mother who used to gamble a lot and one day tried to convince him that she'd give up gambling, but instead committed suicide. Kavin was then taken in by his father but got into a violent fight with him and Ezhil. Growing up as their father died, Kavin became interested in studying the law but left studies due to his lack of college ethics. One day, when Kavin came home and left in front of Ezhil whose ring for Deepika went missing, Ezhil reported him to the police. The police beat up Kavin who himself told Ezhil to look for the ring in the drawer. Ezhil realized his mistake but Kavin, who came home for a photo of their mother, vowed to seek revenge.

On the other hand, Gopalakrishnan still wants to frame Ezhil but the call taxi driver who helped Ezhil confirms he was really stuck on the night of murder. It also gets proved that Kavin paid Suruli's debt with gambling money he won after playing all night. The court acquits both Kavin and Ezhil in order to protect the innocent one from punishment. A disappointed Malazvizhi later calls Akash's friend to inquire about the girl he was infatuated to. Learning it was Deepika, she is shocked. Ezhil is finally revealed to have murdered Akash for drugging, kidnapping and raping Deepika to death, while Kavin found out about Akash's murder and helped Ezhil by getting arrested. Later, Kavin meets Ezhil on the highway and explains how Malarvizhi can't reopen the case as she created a fake witness to help Ezhil, and could herself get into trouble. Ezhil hands him over a photograph of them with their mother and tells him he is going to Mumbai, and later to Copenhagen, never to return. Having sold all of his property in India, Ezhil gives 50% share to Kavin as a tribute. After his marriage with Ananthi, Kavin realizes his lack of trust in his mother prompted her to kill herself. At the end, one of the investigating officers in a documentary shooting calls the case unprecedented, before someone tells him similar cases occurred in other countries as well.

REVIEW

Thadam has an intriguingly written flow of events that begin from the pre-interval point and the film maintains the suspense factor till the end. The movie, however, would have been better with a little more care given to the writing. It takes a long time to get to the plot, which makes the beginning a bit slow. The film also has some spoon-feeding moments as the director wants the audience to differentiate between Ezhil and Kavin even in scenes where they do not appear together.

Arun Vijay steals the show with dual roles which are poles apart in mannerisms and body language. Vidya Pradeep as the smart cop, too, stands out. Yogi Babu and Vijayan fit in their roles flawlessly.