Saturday May 30 2009, Chennai

'Thoranai'

Genre - Action

Directed by - Sabha Ayyappan

Produced by - GK Corporations

Music by - Mani Sharma

Casts - Prakash Raj, Santhanam, Kishore, Meenakshi

Starring - Vishal, Shriya Saran

It seems Vishal and his film producer brother Vikram Krishna have not learnt their lessons from the debacle of 'Satyam'. The duo went all out to create a blockbuster and relied on the potboiler formula, but their efforts came to naught in the absence of a credible script. In 'Thoranai', the same follies are repeated and they must be extremely fortunate if the same fate is not repeated at the marquee.

The plot of the film directed by Saba Ayyappan reminds one of a Hindi potboiler of the '70s. The hero, Murugan (Vishal) comes to the city to look for his elder brother who had left home following a severe chastisement from their mother (Geetha).

In Chennai, Murugan gets entangled in the rivalry between two ganglords--Tamilarasu (Prakash Raj) and Guru (Kishore). Poor Prakash Raj! How many times has he donned the same role! How Murugan finds his brother and brings him home forms the rest of the story.

Vishal has tried his hand at comedy in the film with not much success. He is very good when it comes to action scenes. Shriya Saran sizzles in songs, but she has nothing else to do. The lack of chemistry between Shriya and Vishal does not help the film at all.

Technically, the film is excellent. Mani Sharma's music is just average.

As for debutant director Ayyappan, he has tried to make an entertainer using all the ingredients in a formula film. But, he has not been able to do that as the film lacks a good script and freshness.