Jiiva is an interesting personality in the Tamil film industry. Having been involved in great projects in the first decade of his career with Ameer’s 2005 film ‘Raam,’ contender for best Tamil directorial debut film with Ram’s 2007 film ‘Kattradhu Thamizh,’ M Rajesh’s 2009 film ‘Siva Manasula Sakthi,’ and KV Anand’s 2011 film ‘Ko,’ Jiiva has since struggled to find substantial leading role success. For his latest project, Jiiva collaborates with Malayali director Nithish Sahadev for the farcical comedy ‘Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil,’ an unexpectedly solid outing.
The plot follows Jeevarathnam (Jiiva), a local politician who is invited to a wedding. During the celebrations, however, an elderly neighbour passes away. The rest of the film follows an ensemble of characters, some trying to create as much chaos as possible whilst others attempt to return some order to proceedings. The strongest aspect that works for ‘TTT’ is its comedy. The humour is often subtle, with fantastic dialogue, line deliveries and running gags. The film is not superficial either; there is a suggestion of a deeper political allegory from the opening lines of the film (which are repeated towards the end).
The ensemble cast play their parts fantastically and are all pivotal to the success of the film. Jiiva is great as the struggling politician, doing his best to maintain peace in the neighbourhood. Jenson Dhivakar is hilarious as Jiiva’s political rival, running around sparking little fires wherever he can. Ilavarasu is reliable as usual in his role as the bride’s father. Thambi Ramaiah’s brand of humour can be very hit or miss, but it works perfectly in this film as the grieving son who refuses to compromise. An equally hilarious subplot of the incoming groom and his troupe weaves wonderfully into the rising tension of the film. There is also the deluded one-sided lover, the mysteriously omnipresent grandpa, the side-switching aunts and grandmas who round up this great group of characters.
The craft of the film serves it well. Director Sahadev brings across his Malayali film ethos of not being unnecessarily showy in presentation, focussing more on the quality of the story instead, which works wonders for the film. There is no distracting romantic subplot for the protagonist and no extraneous song sequences. Everything – including Vishnu Vijay’s score and soundtrack, Arjune Babu’s editing and Bablu Aju’s cinematography – is in aid of progressing the story.
Overall, ‘TTT’ works tremendously as a feature film, both as allegory as well as comedy. Hopefully Jiiva continues to pick scripts that serve his skills as an actor. If you enjoyed ‘TTT,’ I would recommend the aforementioned Jiiva starrers, especially Ram’s 2007 film ‘Kattradhu Thamizh.’
Krishna's rating: 3.5 stars
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Official trailer for film below.