Tharunam Movie Review: Thrills in a minor key
Tharunam Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.0 stars, click to give your rating/review,Tharunam keeps its story tight and its ambitions modest. It’s a film that knows exactly what it want
Critic's Rating: 3.0/5
Tharunam Movie Synopsis: A suspended CRPF officer and the woman he’s fallen for are thrown into disarray when he discovers a friend of hers dead in her kitchen. What follows is a calculated cover-up as they try to secure their future without raising suspicion.
Tharunam Movie Review: The real challenge of disposing of a corpse, in cinematic terms, is making sure we in the audience don’t die of tedium. One rarely expects a film to treat this delicate matter with such serene, almost businesslike composure, yet Tharunam glides right into that territory with nary a tremor of conscience. We open on the intersection of chance encounters—a lively bar, a fateful car mishap, and a CRPF officer Arjun (Kishen Das) returning from a messy mission who is sternly advised to stay out of trouble until his suspension is lifted. Inevitably, his path crosses with an enterprising young woman Meera (Smruthi Venkat), whose friend Rohit (Raj Ayyappa) has a hidden agenda that threatens her life and happiness. Arjun and Meera soon discover they’re a match and will be engaged. What follows is a collision of schemes, dangerous motives, and one dangerously calm protagonist determined to tidy up every loose end before anyone even notices they were ever there.
As the film unfolds, we see how Arjun and Meera trade secrets of heartbreak and hidden truths, with Rohit eager to sabotage their potential happiness. The supporting players add little breaks of levity—Bala Saravanan shows up as the garrulous friend unwittingly roped into a deadly farce—and the narrative remains grounded in a single pressing question: just how far will a man trained in covert operations go to safeguard a future he believes in? Director Arvindh Srinivasan shows admirable restraint in his approach, eschewing the typical tropes—there are no meandering subplots, no excessive comedy pieces, and mercifully, no contrived police investigations. Instead, we get a focused narrative that, while occasionally dry, remains engaging through its second half. The film’s strength lies in its commitment to simplicity, though this same quality sometimes works against it, particularly in the first forty minutes where the pace feels almost glacial.
Kishen Das brings a fascinating stoicism to Arjun, creating a character who reveals much through his very impassivity. Smruthi Venkat plays a good partner, but she becomes frustratingly static once the crisis begins, her character frozen in a perpetual state of shock rather than evolving with the narrative. The ending twist does give her some redemption. Bala Saravanan provides some comic relief, though Arjun seems to have him on remote control just when needed. The songs felt unnecessary. The measured approach throughout sometimes renders the thriller aspects toothless—there’s a curious lack of tension in what should be nail-biting situations.
Tharunam keeps its story tight and its ambitions modest. It’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be—and mostly succeeds.
Written By: Abhinav Subramanian
Tharunam Movie Review: The real challenge of disposing of a corpse, in cinematic terms, is making sure we in the audience don’t die of tedium. One rarely expects a film to treat this delicate matter with such serene, almost businesslike composure, yet Tharunam glides right into that territory with nary a tremor of conscience. We open on the intersection of chance encounters—a lively bar, a fateful car mishap, and a CRPF officer Arjun (Kishen Das) returning from a messy mission who is sternly advised to stay out of trouble until his suspension is lifted. Inevitably, his path crosses with an enterprising young woman Meera (Smruthi Venkat), whose friend Rohit (Raj Ayyappa) has a hidden agenda that threatens her life and happiness. Arjun and Meera soon discover they’re a match and will be engaged. What follows is a collision of schemes, dangerous motives, and one dangerously calm protagonist determined to tidy up every loose end before anyone even notices they were ever there.
As the film unfolds, we see how Arjun and Meera trade secrets of heartbreak and hidden truths, with Rohit eager to sabotage their potential happiness. The supporting players add little breaks of levity—Bala Saravanan shows up as the garrulous friend unwittingly roped into a deadly farce—and the narrative remains grounded in a single pressing question: just how far will a man trained in covert operations go to safeguard a future he believes in? Director Arvindh Srinivasan shows admirable restraint in his approach, eschewing the typical tropes—there are no meandering subplots, no excessive comedy pieces, and mercifully, no contrived police investigations. Instead, we get a focused narrative that, while occasionally dry, remains engaging through its second half. The film’s strength lies in its commitment to simplicity, though this same quality sometimes works against it, particularly in the first forty minutes where the pace feels almost glacial.
Kishen Das brings a fascinating stoicism to Arjun, creating a character who reveals much through his very impassivity. Smruthi Venkat plays a good partner, but she becomes frustratingly static once the crisis begins, her character frozen in a perpetual state of shock rather than evolving with the narrative. The ending twist does give her some redemption. Bala Saravanan provides some comic relief, though Arjun seems to have him on remote control just when needed. The songs felt unnecessary. The measured approach throughout sometimes renders the thriller aspects toothless—there’s a curious lack of tension in what should be nail-biting situations.
Tharunam keeps its story tight and its ambitions modest. It’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be—and mostly succeeds.
Written By: Abhinav Subramanian
