Naga Chaitanya who badly needed a hit after a series of failures has teamed up with the trusted director Chandoo Mondeti and Sai Pallavi with whom he has tasted great success with Love Story. The combination of these three has raised many expectations and Rock Star DSP joining this trio as music director has made the expectations go wild on Thandel. The hype created around this film and the songs along with promos has added more fire to the expectations as the appearance of Naga Chaitanya and rustic backgrounds with vivid backdrops of sea has made Thandel the much sought after film by the audience.
Thandel kicks off with Sai Pallavi introducing the love track of Raju, the fisherman and Satya his fiance. Satya vehemently asks Raju to give up the risky job of fishing and settle in life after marriage. Raju though reluctant cannot bypass his childhood friend turned lover’s request goes out for one final time into the sea. He accidentally ventures into the Pakistan waters and gets imprisoned. The rest of the story was about how Raju escapes from captivity and how Satya tries to bring his lover back with her relentless efforts.
The first half of the film was marked by love and foot tapping numbers like ‘Hilessaa’ which sets the tone though it was initially starts with slow pace but picks up momentum with an engaging pre interval twist that keep the fingers crossed about the things to unfold in the second half.
Chandoo Mondeti has decided to play it safe and stuck to the old template of patriotism in the second half thereby the emotion and love part that were the focus in the first half were relegated to the back seat. To make the film appeal to the PAN India audience many contemporary issues between the two nations who are at loggerheads were given ample importance and Article 370 is one among them.
Naga Chaitanya impresses with his out of comfort zone performance as a fisherman. His hard work gets reflected in every frame and he once again proves that he is capable of doing versatile roles. Sai Pallavi gets the usual character laced with emotions and no holds barred fighting spirit and she does well in her part. The chemistry between the lead pair was a quite treat to watch particularily the dance numbers between the two have given aesthetic touch to this chemistry.
Though Chandoo got a winsome story and unique script to deliver, he has faltered in latter half as more patriotic fervour was injected in a rather routine manner. The rivalry between two nations and animosity towards each other have been shown and dealth with in many films inluding the recently released Amaran. The effort of Chandoo to make the film as a love and patriotic saga has somewhat fallen in the groove making it yet another routine watch expect for the performances of lead pair.
The visuals were grand, thanks to the cinematographer Shamdat and equally the score by DSP was brilliant without any loudness and going along with the mood of the film thereby enhancing it considerably. The editing part by Navin Nooli should have been more sharper as the second half drags a bit testing the patience of audience to some extent during the 180-minute long film.
On the whole, Thandel is a one time watch if one can bear all those filmish patriotism that has been flooding the screens offlate. And go for it for the soulful performances of Sai and Chay who definitely give your money’s worth with their heart touching love story.
