Thandel Review: Patriotic Love Story

Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi's competent performances barely elevate this romantic drama, which prefers patriotic thrills, observes Arjun Menon.

Thandel, the latest from commercial genre specialist Chandoo Mondeti, is too caught up in the machinations of larger-than-life implications, as opposed to fleeting emotional beats at the heart of the story.

The film is clearly a reworking of the core idea of Mani Ratnam's classic Roja (1992), where a woman struggled against the system to free her captive husband in a foreign land.

But Thandel is too broad an exercise to have any of the emotional finesse or humanistic impulse of Roja.

Thandel is as mainstream as it gets, preferring visceral thrills over legitimate drama.

Naga Chaitanya tries his luck after a recent rough batch of flops, collaborating again with Geetha Arts, the production house that gave him the blockbuster 100% Love (2011).

Thandel is a film in a constant state of identity crisis, trying to be bigger and dramatically ambitious, with middling results.

First, we have the romance between a fisherman and his wife that quickly gives way to a tone deaf adventure about a hero getting caught by Pakistani forces after wandering into their waters.

The romantic angle is weakly conceived and there is an air of awkwardness in the way Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi interact.

The performances hold the weight of the charm and the slow revelations about their bond do not come across.

There is a functional quality to this half of the narrative and the writing is less interested in exploring the central romance, which just seems like a launchpad for the film's bigger ideas.

There is an feeling of lost potential with the way even the larger ideas are squandered away due to muddled writing.

Thandel is constantly trying to upscale and be a bigger, massier commercial film, when its true heart lies in the quieter moments that go unexplored.

Thandel is elevated in parts by the conviction in the performances of the lead.

Naga Chaitanya has come a long way in his ability to justify the weight of a tentpole outing on his shoulders.

The film features some of the better work in the actor's recent output and you can sense a beating heart in the way he surrenders to the film, without over-selling the part.

Sai Pallavi too gets a fairly routine 'wife' archetype that she lifts beyond the blandness on paper.

The film would have easily crumbled if not for her sparse, emotionally attentive performance that contrasts the unsubtle pitch of the filmmaking.

The action pieces and dramatic construction of the scenes taking place in Pakistan feel increasingly redundant and clumsily put together.

There is no sense of tension. The superficiality in the writing and staging undercuts the emotional bigness of the common man forced to turn into a leader trope that is a major part of the character's journey (also the film's title).

The interactions between the secondary characters and the revolt, intercut with the romantic longing of the wife, becomes stale beyond a point.

Thandel is effective whenever it refocuses its fulcrum around the longing and desire of the couple, who is forced through a painful ordeal testing the extent of their love.

Shamdat's visuals are not flashy and keeps the tone grounded with the yellowish hues that never distract from the central conflict.

But Devi Sri Prasad ends up being the lifeblood of the movie and delivers a highly enjoyable soundtrack.

The music never overwhelms and DSP manages to elevate the dull stretches with his trademark pulsating score.

The film never stays on the quieter, romantic encounters between the couple and is too busy to move on to the high octane, market-friendly, jingoistic action.

The image of the hero fighting while holding an Indian national flag signifies the overtly corny patriotic swings the film is going for.

The reluctance to own the romantic tragedy at the heart for superficial thrills prevents Thandel from truly rising.