Thandel

Even Devi Sri Prasad’s music fails to elevate many dull stretches in the second half. While the love story remains engaging, the film’s attempt to depict the struggle to secure the release of the fishermen from Pakistan falls flat. The climax, where Pakistani officials reveal that one fisherman lacks an Aadhar card, inadvertently portrays Indian foreign service officials as incompetent, failing to complete basic paperwork. Instead of creating tension, this moment undermines the emotional impact. Overall, Thandel is a mixed bag. The love story and the first half work well, but the jingoistic elements and weak writing in the second half drag the film down. Despite these flaws, Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi’s sincere performance and hard work, along with Devi Sri Prasad’s songs, help mitigate some of the shortcomings.

Great performances from the lead actors, very good music and an emotionally charged gripping screenplay are the three essential ingredients for an emotional love story to work big time. In Thandel, two out of the three aforementioned ingredients worked out so well and tried their best to cover the shortcomings of the third ingredient, i.e. an emotionally charged gripping screenplay.

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.

Thandel is written and directed by Chandoo Mondeti, marking his third collaboration with Naga Chaitanya after Premam and Savyasachi. He seems to reserve his best work for Naga Chaitanya, and Thandel is no exception. When it comes to Naga Chaitanya’s career, Thandel is undoubtedly his finest film to date. From the very first scene, Chandoo Mondeti crafts a gripping love story that keeps the audience engaged until the end. The film beautifully captures the themes of longing, love, small misunderstandings, and the hardships faced by the couple. Chandoo Mondeti opts for a classy, emotion-driven narrative, avoiding commercial gimmicks and focusing purely on drama and heartfelt moments. A major strength of Thandel is the crackling chemistry between the lead pair. Both Sai Pallavi and Naga Chaitanya deliver outstanding performances, stealing the show with their brilliant acting.

While Chandoo gets the initial portions of this fallout really well, the moment this story gets sidestepped to include the happenings inside the Pakistan jail, things start getting queasy. Of course, the true story of 22 fisherfolk caught by Pakistan for trespassing into their territory, and languishing in their prison for months together makes for a compelling story. But Chandoo and Co are burdened by the initial decision to mount it as an against-all-the-odds love story, and they get the love story so right that the odds don’t really work in favour of the narrative.