Athiyan Athirai’s ‘Thandakaaranyam’ has a powerful core that needed more convincing writing

Dinesh and Kalaiyarasan play siblings from a marginalised community. The crux of the film is from real life, an incident involving Naxals. But the screenplay bites off more than it can chew. The rest of this review may contain spoilers.

Athiyan Athirai’s Thandakaaranyam is the story of two brothers from a tribal community in the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. The older brother is Sadayan (Dinesh). He questions the people who oppress him, like the forest officers who arrest his people on flimsy grounds. He questions the powerful men who rig the auctions of forest produce. They are all corrupt, and Sadayan gets a powerful Ilaiyaraaja song (‘Manidha manidha’) as his theme to lead a potential uprising. The other brother is Murugan (Kalaiyarasan). He is a forest officer, who – again – is a victim of the powerful men who oppress his community. His only relief is the woman he loves (Vinsu Sam), and this gives him his Ilaiyaraaja song (‘O Priya Priya’), which has her name. When push comes to shove, a decision is made. Murugan will join a paramilitary force in Jharkhand, and return as an officer. Their father wishes to see his son in the very uniform that used to terrify him, when worn by his oppressors.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galattaplus.com/athiyan-athirais-thandakaaranyam-has-a-powerful-core-that-needed-more-comvincing-writing/

You can watch the trailer / video review here:

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