Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies is known for producing decent and quality films in the past. Small films like Neram, Mynaa, Udhayam NH4, Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer, Nedunchalai and Saivam to name a few saw the light of day only because Red Giant Movies who had the choice to distribute it. Tamiluku En Ondrai Aluthavum is another proof to their strong repute of filmography. This film is Udhay's first film this year and up next is Nannbenda which stars him in the lead. How has TEOA directed by debutant Ramprakash Rayappa fared?

Plot

 The film is a tale of three different stories narrated before and after an accident of nature set in the backdrop of Chennai.

The first story deals with a love track between Bindhu Madhavi, a bank officer and Attakathi Dinesh, a real estate agent. Bindhu Madhavi is struggling for life in an unfortunate incident where she is about to succumb to injuries near a construction site. Will Dinesh save the life of his romantic interest?

The second story involves a bomb explosion planned by a terrorist in a crowded government office in Chennai.Sathish is unknowingly trapped in the terrorist's plan. Will he survive and save the people?

The third story is about Nakul who is a prodigious geek in electronics engineering. After a powerful solar flare knocks out all mobile towers in the vicinity, Nakul attemps to bring them back with his flawless flair for electronics. Will Nakul succeed? 

All these stories are connected beautifully in the climax with an exciting timeline of events throughout the runtime.

Plus

The screenplay and narration are the major positives for this sorta-anthology thriller which thrives mainly on its main characters in each story. Ramprakash Rayappa has made a good debut with his limited cast and experience. His ultimate success lies in simplifying this story tidily on screen without overcomplicating it since the burden of three stories is always there as a reminder. There are some good performance by Urvashi as Nakul's mother, Manobala as college principal in addition to Nakul, Dinesh and Bindhu's perfect portrayals. Bindhu's lip-sync was little out of place and it was quite evident. 

The realism included in all three tales is a huge strength to the overall genre of the film. The fact the film is devoid of all the mainstream elements like kuthu song, forced fight sequences is a refreshing change. 

Minus

The first half moves at a sluggish pace with stale romance portions between the leads in both stories, save alone Sathish's tale where wry humor plays to the gallery. The film picks up only before the interval and the second half was a little draggy towards the end. Editor Sabu Joseph could have shortened the film to two hours, one feels.

Bottomline

Tamiluku En Ondrai Aluthavum is a concoction of a distinct tale of incidents narrated as a refreshing thriller with a perfect amount of realism and cinematic liberties. 

Verdict : A refreshing debut effort

Stars : 2.5/5