Thittam Irandu slow, thrilling & thought provoking
Thittam Irandu (Plan B)
(Tamil with English subtitles)
SonvyLIV
Rated: 6/10
Vignesh Karthick’s slow thriller Thittam Irandu is quite a revelation – right till the end with a climax that takes you by storm.
Director Karthick who carries a yen for drama as a soap artist mostly on Vijaya TV, comes with this differently enabled murder mystery wrapped in a social message around the modern mores of life
The interesting thing about the one hour 45 minute film is that it refuses to get cowed down by a lack of pace which is considered the signature tune of most thrillers. In fact, Thittam Irandu, or Plan B when translated, dotes on its snail’s speed with Aishwarya Rajesh playing the lead cop with consummate finesse.
The story revolves around the disappearance and death of Athira’s childhood friend Surya whose husband calls her to report her disappearance. Athira who has just found the love of her life, gets overly involved in solving her bestie’s murder wherein the husband, and a handicapped serial killer are suspects.
Karthick keeps up the suspense till the very end which comes with two climaxes – the first one is as stunning and the second one is thought provoking. The mount itself is a soiree of slick production and ambience catching in the entire film keeps you engaged alongside a short and simple plot.
Yes there are niggles like the sudden disappearance of a buzzing phone which never gets explained even though there is a lot of questions around the gadget, and Athira talking on the phone in one instance and jumping out of a balcony in the very next. So sudden is the badly edited portion that I had to rewind it twice to see if I had missed something. Then there are some corny moments which can be excused, coming as they do from a soap dish artist turned director.
However, what does a thriller need and require? An unrevealed soiree in the midst of a thousand revelations, something that should keep the viewer guessing, so to say, an entire film acting as one big hook.
Plan B manages to engineer that. The fact that the final revelation is something you least expected, even if you started guessing who the killer was somewhere after three-fourths of the film was turned in, makes up for all the little insects that crawl in with the rain.
Last but not least, the language barrier is no real barrier which makes the proceedings entirely enjoyable, especially when you are on OTT. For the big screen? May not be suited for that.