Thenmerku Paruvakkatru Review

At first look, Thenmerku Paruvakatru appears to belong to the new genre movies born out of Kollywood’s recent infatuation for rural Tamil Nadu and crude village plots. The movie relies on its storyline (showing unseen rural life to city bred movie goers) and not on the fascination it could have generated. Kollywood has been churning out similar village themed movies since a couple of years. Thenmerku Paruvakatru is director Seenu Ramasamy’s second movie; his first was Koodal Nagar (2007).

Veerayi (Saranya), a struggling widow, lives with her son Murugan (Vijay Sethupathy) in a village in Theni. Veerayi is overtly affectionate and possessive of her son, as she has brought him up without a partner’s support. Murugan is a goat herd who hangs around with his group of friends to play the conventional village pranks by drinking and pulling others’ legs. Veerayi insists that Murugan marry his cousin; Murugan, reluctant to start a responsible married life, half-heartedly accepts the proposal.

The village is attacked during nights by a gang of masked thieves, who steal goats. Anyone who tries to stop the gang gets severely assaulted. When the masked thieves attack Murugan’s herd, Murugan and his friends attack the thieves, who manage to flee with the goats. In the melee, Murugan gets hold of a thief and unmasks his face. Shocked to realize that the thief is a young girl, Murugan loses his grip on her and she flees.

Murugan, now curious about the woman thief, goes searching for her through the neighbouring villages. After a day’s travel, he finds Pechi (Vasundra), a midday meal cook at a village school, who doubles up as a goat thief to support her family, who make a living out of selling stolen goat meat.

Pechi’s audacious nature fascinates Murugan, who has now lost his heart to the goat thief. Pechi’s family members, fearing Murugan might report them to the police, make an attempt on his life, but he survives. The murder attempt reveals the criminal background of the family; they are arrested and sent to jail for theft and attempted murder. Pechi’s family is mad at Murugan for bringing them to justice, while Pechi realizes her tender feelings for Murugan.

Murugan and Pechi now decide to live with each other for the rest of their lives. On learning about the affair, Veerayi gets mad at Murugan for retracting from his promise of marrying his cousin; she is also insenced about her son’s affair with a girl hailing from a family of thieves. Further scenes reveal a more important reason why Veerayi is adamantly opposing her son’s relationship with Pechi.

Director Seenu Ramasamy has displayed his storytelling skills after Koodal Nagar. We are relieved this movie doesn’t join the long list of recent flicks which centre around shabby, checked-lungi clad men with ‘aruvaals’ romancing dusky village belles. The movie has surprises, and its pace quickens as scenes progress. Saranya as Veerayi is the heart of the movie. Her performance as a struggling widow, a possessive mother and a hardworking farmer is exemplary. 20 plus years of acting has given Saranya the talent to take roles to her heart. Lead actors Vijay Sethupathi and Vasundhra offer satisfactory performances. Renigunta fame Theepetti Ganeshan as Murugan’s friend tries his hand at humour with little success. Talking in a village Tamil dialect in an argumentative tone is not always comical. Even with your eyes closed, Vairamuthu’s lyrics make you sense this movie is from Theni. Thenmerku Parukatru is artistic and celebrates motherhood.



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