Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum review: An important subject handled with inanity

Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum
Director: Premsai
Cast: Jai, Yami Gautam, Santhanam, Nasser
Rating: 2/5

Despite knocking at the burning issues of the day and plotted with disarming novelty, Tamil cinema often allows itself be distracted by bland romances, puerile humour and sappy songs.

Debutante director Premsai falls into this trap -- but probably with the noble intention of offering ‘fulsome’ entertainment. But what appears on the screen is a string of irritating interludes that destroys a subject as disturbing as misuse of stem cell technology. The film is Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum in Tamil.

Read: Tamilselvanum is not a remake of Premium Rush

Dr Evil (let us call him that) played by Ashutosh Rana has his cronies in Chennai (and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu) aborting pregnancies in their early weeks. Stem cells are removed from the foetuses and used to treat and cure blindness, spinal injuries and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson. A ward boy (Thambi Ramaiah) in a Chennai hospital smells a rat when an unusually large number of abortions are seen, and he couriers a sample of the abortion-inducing pill with a note to a social activist, played by Nasser.

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And the courier boy is Tamilselvan (a wooden and inexpressive Jai, his usual trademark), who has joined the firm on the insistence of his best buddy, Nasar (Santhanam is back to being the hero’s sidekick, cracking jokes that are boringly jaded by now). Coincidences push the vital packet into the hands of Tamilselvan, who discovers at the point of delivery that the activist being manhandled by Dr Evil’s goons.

A very long chase sequence ensues, and this appears so repetitive (yawn) as do those scenes where Tamilselvan flips for Kavya (Yami Gautam utterly wasted, after her gripping performance in Vicky Donor), a sales girl in a garment store. He begins to deliver a packet to her every single day, the packages containing advertisement material that he himself sends! If this does not tilt the scales of exaggeration, the affair seems equally incredulous. A decked-up Gautam and an unruly looking Jai force what appears like a farcical relationship in a story with such a crucial subject, but needlessly allowed to jaywalk into inanity.

Watch the trailer here

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