Thalli Pogathey is the remake of actor Nani’s superhit Telugu entertainer Ninnu Kori. The entertainer created a massive wave among the younger generation when it hit the screens back in 2017. Story teller R. Kannan rightly chose to capitalize on it. But his attempt was hindered by financial struggle that saw the film getting delayed for nearly two years. Actor Atharvaa who was last seen in the cop thriller drama 100 is back on screens with his romantic film Thalli Pogathey. For some time, the actor has not had a good box office success and is in need of one soon. Actress Anupama Parameswaran who ventured in to Tamil cinema with Kodi plays the female lead role. So, how has the movie come out? Is it good enough to give actor Atharvaa the commercial success that he longs for? To know that let us get in to the movie review.
Thalli Pogathey Movie Poster
Thalli Pogathey revolves around three characters Pallavi’s (Anupama Parameswaran) lover Karthik (Atharvaa), and her husband Arun (Amitash Pradhan). Sounds wild? Let us jump in before your imaginations run wild. Karthik is doing his Ph. D in Chennai. He meets Pallavi and is immediately love smitten. Fate takes his side and she approaches him to teach her how to do a kuthu dance. He begins to train her. As the training goes, gradually Pallavi falls for him. Karthik becomes a tenant in Pallavi’s house and tries to get close to her family. He succeeds. He becomes a good friend of Pallavi’s father (Aadukalam Naren) to the extent that he shares stuffs about his personal life with him. When asked about whether he is in love with someone, Karthik offers him a funny response, “Intha aaduradhu ooduradhu theeduradhu aparam dhaadi vallakurathu lam nammakku set aagaadhu sir.” But right in his house he sneaks behind his back to play his romantic games with his daughter.
Karthik and Pallavi get serious about each other. Rightly assuming, that her father would not hit the green button for her love, Pallavi proposes to Karthik to elope and get married. But Karthik is not in the mindset to elope and he turns down her idea. He learns that Pallavi’s father is okay with love but he just wants a responsible person who is settled in life as his daughter’s partner. Karthik shifts his focus to bettering his life, to fit in Pallavi’s father’s son in law design. In the meantime, heartbroken Pallavi agrees to marry the groom her father picks for her. She gets married to Arun and she emigrates to France to be with him. When Karthik learns this, he is dejected. He does what our heroes do when they have lost their love, turns a drunkard. After few years Karthik meets Pallavi in France. He presumes that Pallavi is still in love with him and leads an unhappy life with Arun. Pallavi tries to convince him that she is happy and has moved on with her life.
Will a hero accept when a heroine says what she is feeling? Absolutely not. Since their love is very true, they somehow happen to know more about their female partner than she knows about herself. So, in order to make him see that she is happy Pallavi comes up with a revolutionary idea. She asks him to come and stay with her and Arun for 10 days. Karthik immediately jumps in as if this is what he was waiting for. He moves in with them. Will he win Pallavi back and take her away from Arun, or will Pallavi convince him that she is happy with Arun, is what makes the rest of the story.
Remakes rarely replicate the success of their original version. This is because when a successful film is remade it has the innate pressure to do well than its parent version in order to escape its shadows. It is a tougher job than it appears to be. Director R. Kannan takes up the challenge and to be fair has succeeded to an extent. But he could not go all the way. What he gets right is the romance portion of Karthik and Pallavi. These scenes are light and breezy. It is these portions that keep us invested in the film. But these are all just bits and pieces of the big picture. Thalli Pogathey as a whole drama does not amuse us. Bad writing and execution are the culpable culprits.
The original version had actor Aadhi Pinisetty portraying Arun and the role did have a weightage in moving the flick. But for some reasons that role has been turned in to a dummy one here. The chemistry between Nivetha Thomas and Aadhi Pinisetty is what made Ninnu Kori sellable. But there is zero chemistry between Thalli Pogathey’s Pallavi and Arun. They are a tedious couple to watch. And Thalli Pogathey loses stream right when this factor stands up at our face.
Actor Atharvaa fits well in the shoes of Karthik. He does well but could not escape the shadow of Nani’s performance. Even actress Anupama Parameswaran suffers the same fate getting entangled with Nivetha Thomas’s recital of Pallavi. Actor Amitash Pradhan is adequate. Actor Aadukalam Naren is effective as usual. Actor Kaali Venkat is underused and we wish we saw more of him. The rest of the cast has delivered what was asked of them.
On the technical front, the tracks are the same as in the Telugu version but the lyrics are not good enough to make an impact. Musician Gopi Sunder’s background score is functional. Cinematographer N Shanmuga Sundaram frames are adequate but could have been better. Editor Selva RK’s scissor works emphasizes the work of his colleague.
On the whole, Thalli Pogathey lacks the fairy-tale effect that its original version had and that largely upsets its mission to be a trailblazing modern day love tale of Tamil cinema.
