- Date of Release: 07 February 2025
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance, Thriller
- Language: Telugu
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Thandel
Introduction
There are some starkly similar themes between the Telugu film Thandel and the Tamil film Amaran. At their core, both are love stories that intend to tug the strings of your heart. Both also have a patriotic angle to the story involving the protagonist, and both invariably are stories involving longing. But strangely enough, Thandel never really enters the waters of Amaran on an emotional level. There is never really a try (barring a couple of well thought out sequences) that makes you want to feel for the two lovers. For instance, when the character of Sai Pallavi in Amaran silently spends time with her family, she is also longing for her husband who is serving the nation. For surprisingly, when Satya (Sai Pallavi) stares blankly at the walls, she does exactly that. Her fight for the ultimate freedom of Raju (Naga Chaitanya) ought to have been a complex one, having to fight through the obstacles of his identity with our own authorities, apart from having to worry about the way he is treated by Pakistani officials across the border. And that was the core of the story, and the gaze that the film needed to tap into. Instead, what you get is an over-the-top drama wherein Raju gets to play the superhero across the border while Satya is the damsel, silently looking for a way to get Raju back. The tone that ought to have been that of Amaran, almost enters that of Gadar at one point, something that never was supposed to be the core of the film.
Story & Screenplay
The premise of Thandel is interesting. Based on a true event wherein 22 fishermen were unknowingly caught by the Pakistani Navi after having mistakenly crossed the sea border in 2018, the mounting of Thandel isn’t entirely wrong. It opens with the introduction of Satya who decides to move on from her equation with Raju, while agreeing to marry a stranger. One look at the flashback reveals that Raju is a fisherman who has an obsession with the sea after his fisherman father passes away. This is particularly true, even as he chooses the sea over any other distractions in his life including Satya. In a scene, you see him turning into a messiah for his folks by standing up against the land mafia, only to be christened with the term ‘Thandel’ which means a Ship’s Leader.
One of the issues of the film has got to be the romantic angle between Satya and Raju that doesn’t have a sense of maturity or emotional depth to truly invest in their relationship. In fact, the romantic angle needed to be sedate and a lot more nuanced like in Amaran, to fully invest in their journeys. Instead, what you are served is a typical nibba-nibbi kind of an equation that is superficial and never really makes you root for them. In fact, I did not feel a single emotion while witnessing the couple secretly meeting and sharing hugs. That said, the idea of Satya opposing Raju’s chronicles in the sea was justified by an event that she is witness to, that rightfully navigates the drama into the dramatic and partly heartfelt category. In one of the few beautifully penned scenes, you see Satya rushing to the platform to catch Raju red-handed while boarding his train for his next sea-adventure, only for Raju to plead and plead and finally board the train without Satya uttering a single word. This was indeed a beautiful moment that was created, that briefly caught my attention even as I was witness to multiple failed attempts of Raju trying to connect to Satya.
I was briefly invested in the interval block involving the boats of Raju and his clan caught in a tempest. What was breaking the tone of the scene was Raju’s over zealous ‘superman’ act wherein you saw him flying and saving a teammate from drowning. This was plain fan service while deviating from the core idea of the film. The plot point at the halfway mark did make for a promising setup for the second half with the fishermen being trialed as spies on foreign shores while their families longed for them back home. The major issue though starts in second hour wherein the stereotypical nature of some of the newly introduced characters is introduced.
The two-fold issue in the second hour cannot be discounted – the idea should have been to showcase the struggles of Raju and his clan by displaying the amount of violence subjected on them. Yet, the itch to provide some fan-service completely destroyed the writing here. Raju was literally shown to be a superman, taking on the officials and his fellow inmates in one go, often being involved in brawls. So the pain of a struggle was never even remotely addressed. On the other hand, even the mercy pleas on behalf of Satya having to deal with the authorities felt just so simplistic, without even taking into account the shortcomings of the system. Everything felt like a smooth sailing with a minor blip before getting the drama back on track. The plot points of the abolishment of Article 370 and the death of a minister which would impact the eventual release of the clan, felt just so rushed that I just patiently went through the motions to get to the end. The final act was good but didn’t exude of half the impact that was intended because of these glaring flaws! The screenplay was a complete mess with a clear dilemma being on treading the beats of the source material versus serving the fandom.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues do not have any punch in them. The dilemma of fan service versus an emotional connect did affect the lines the most – as a result of which, the dialogues ended up being superficial and pale. The music by DSP remains one of the highlights of the film and it was wonderful to see the composer understanding the world and creating notes of symphony through them. Even the BGM tries hard for the drama to work but to no real avail given its dismal writing. The cinematography is just about adequate. While a few of the wide shots paint a pretty picture, the frames never really allow you to get closer to the couple. As a result, there is always a distance between the viewers and the couple, that significantly impacts the emotional intellect of the drama. Even the VFX remain substandard, parts of which reminded me of Devara and the studio-level water sequences. The editing is decent but nothing really to shout about. Director Chandoo Mondeti misses the mark here. The biggest shortcoming of the director was in failing to stir up an emotional connect with his characters, that was the foundation of the drama. The proceedings were flat and made even flatter with some needless flat service that did play on jingoism but never on real emotions that lay buried beneath the surface.
Performances
The performances are decent here although not all characters have an arc. It was nice to spot Babloo Prithiveeraj inna sincere and earnest role after Animal. That said, the casting choice of having Prakash Belavade playing a Pakistani officer must be questioned because he clearly seemed like a misfit. Karunakaran is affable and does a good job. Sundip Ved is quite stereotypical with his character and the writing never really allows him to shine. Sai Pallavi is a fabulous actor and if some emotions land then it has to be due to her impeccable performance as Satya even though the writing never allowed her to be half as effective as her character in Amaran. Still, she puts her best foot forward and does a commendable job. Naga Chaitanya as Raju definitely plays to the galleries and builds on his tremendous screen presence. My only issue remained on how his character was mounted – like a superhero, instead of an emotional victim of politics that would have truly hit home. He is good but the writing never allows him to be even better.
Conclusion
Thandel is an oddly tepid drama lacking an emotional depth, and suffering from the ‘superman’ syndrome that never really accounts for its ‘actual’ core, thereby ending up being a disappointing watch. Available in a theatre near you.
