Thozha / Oppiri Movie Review

A movie crafted with a feel good makeover, Thozha spreads positive energy and has lot of takeaways for life and how life is to be lived. A bilingual that released in both Tamil and Telugu, Thozha (Oppiri in Telugu) is an official remake of a French film titled The Intouchables.
Here is a beautiful film sans any of the regular Tamil masala flavours that we see very often. The word entertainment offer different meaning and experience to different people. Thozha is definitely an entertaining film but the level of entertainment it provides is on a different platform and in a different format.
Its the story of a deep bonding shared between a wealthy businessman Vikram who is half paralysed and his caretaker Seenu played by Nagarjuna and Karthi respectively. Vikram and his secretary ( Tamannaah) interviews various candidates for the caretaker's role. But the normal nature of prospective candidates doesn't excite Vikram who got interested in the casual and positive attitude of Seenu who was on a parole and naturally he got selected.
The film show us the honest and sincere relationship / friendship developed between the two as both of them becomes saviour or helper to each other on many occasions that makes them inseparable.
Vamsi Paidippally is the director and he can be proud of this movie which is bound to taste success and get positive feedbacks. The screenplay has helped his cause that has lot of light hearted moments, some touching scenes and well written dialogues to name a few. Some witty scenes like the painting scenes and describing the meaning of a portrait created by Seenu was good for a laugh.
One complaint I have is the running time. Close to three hours ( 172 minutes to be precise), Thozha is tad too lengthy. They had the chance to stop somewhere around the two and a half hour mark but got extended to another twenty minutes or so. The extended twenty minutes wasn't that bad but had they trimmed some portions towards the close, it would have looked more crisp and sharp.
The relationship between Vikram and Seenu is being told with lot of lessons for us on how to lead a good and positive life without any stress. At times, a feel of preaching was felt but that was in a limited and tolerable level. When the results do more good than bad, who cares for such minor negativity.
Both Nagarjuna and Karthy did their respective roles with ease and shared a good onscreen chemistry that played a vital part in making the film a success. Little expressions from Nagarjuna and comic timing of Karthi with his oneliners were a real treat for the audience. Tamannaah in the secretary role looked hot and beautiful. She had little role to play but was part of the proceedings and had reasonable share of screen presence.
Two lady superstars makes cameo appearances and made it count. Prakash Raj as friend and legal adviser to Vikram was a good casting who made us laugh on more than one occasion with his typical mannerisms. Vivek makes a brief appearance while actress Jayasudha play mother to Karthi.
There are couple of Kerala connection for Thozha. One is on the music side and all credits to Gopi Sundar for such beautiful background score that elevated the film to another level. His songs were also impressive and goes well with the visuals. The next Kerala connection that I am referring to is the presence of late actress Kalpana. She didn't have a big role to play but it was a neat act from her. Unfortunately, she could not dub for this film and had it been her own voice, her role would have made more impact.
Cinematography added another feather to Thozha. The frames had a rich and elegant feel to it and all credits to the camera team. Edits were good making sure the film retained its total flow but as said before, the length could have been trimmed a bit to make the film look more appealing.
Thozha is not our regular Tamil popcorn movie but is not to be discarded on that count. A good entertainer giving a totally different feel and colour altogether, it was a refreshing experience for me watching a sincere movie that has its heart at the right place. Going with four out of five as my personal rating for Thozha.
Rating - 4 / 5