31 December 2010: At 11:59 pm, a sudden bomb blast occurs in London, killing several people.
After a year, A blind man named Kenny Thomas lays flowers on the memorial and mourns someone's death during the bomb blast. He is provided with secret details by a mysterious woman. Kenny then takes a taxi driven by Sathyan, a comical Tamilian. He drops Kenny at a place and waits for him to return, but Kenny goes inside to kill someone, where he kills him and throws him down.
Seeing the corpse, Sathyan flees, Kenny is shown to produce a sound from his mouth to find his way, which is later shown as echolocation. Later, Kenny play the piano in a church, and as he is blind, he has so many people who care for him. In the meantime, he carries out two more murders, taking the same taxi driven by the innocent Sathyan, following instructions from the mysterious woman.
Sara Vinayagam, a British-born Anglo-Indian woman, wins the Miss London title, and to build her social profile, she goes to Kenny's church and acts like she is helping out there. Initially, Kenny does not like her, but eventually, they become friends. Sara's father is a doctor, who supports Kenny. Inspector Veerakathi, a British Tamil, is the officer in charge of the murders.
As the autopsy of the murdered victims takes place under Sara's father, Veerakathi visits him and learns about Kenny, who is admitted there for a small accident. Veerakathi initially suspects Kenny but is not convinced. As Sathyan is found on all the murder spots, the police arrest him, suspecting that he must be having a connection with the murders. Sathyan manages to find a picture of Kenny from a local newspaper and informs Veerakathi.
Sathyan is released and meets Sara, and both of them go to a place (which she learns of from Kenny's phone, which he misses during a fight with the local thugs). They reach there in time to see Kenny almost kill a steel company owner named Victor. Kenny flees the scene after sensing them and takes Sathyan's taxi to escape. As he is blind, he runs the taxi into a river, along with Sathyan and Sara. Later, they reach a riverbank. Sara and Sathyan try to escape, where they see Geetha, who confronts Sara and Sathyan and reveals Kenny's real identity:
Past: Kenny is actually a RAW officer in India, whose real name is Shivakumar. Shiva and his close friend Sharath completed various missions for the government. In the meantime, Shiva marries Meenakshi, a conservative eye doctor in Delhi. Time goes by, they become closer to each other. Meenakshi decides to express her love to Shiva on New Year's Day (which turns out to be his birthday).
Meanwhile, Sharath handles a case where an Indian Army secret (a flowchart) about a WMD goes missing. Shiva shows interest in this case and leaves for London (with a different name, where a former Indian policeman named Kenny helps him) to find an important clue, as Sharath is injured during a fight, but Shiva is shocked to find his plan go wrong and is now chased by the L.C.P.D, following a few incidents.
Shiva soon realizes that Sharath is the mastermind behind the missing flowchart, as he sold it to a terrorist group, with some help from the London militants. Shiva finds out about this entire plot and asks Sharath to surrender, but he later learns that Meenakshi has also come to London along with Sharath (to surprise Shiva on his birthday and propose to him). To save her, Shiva abides by Sharath's order and comes to a place (with Kenny), where a sudden bomb blast occurs, killing Kenny and Meenakshi and blinding Shiva.
Present: Kenny's actual wife is Geetha, who decides to take revenge on those responsible for the deaths of Kenny and Meenakshi. She forms a team with Shiva and joins him in a school where he learns echolocation from Daniel Kish. After that, Geetha reveals about the people who caused the disaster to Kenny, which is the reason for the murders. After burning Sharath with the Metal Melting Machine in Victor's (Sharath's friend) factory, the India Union Minister requested Kenny to come back to India as Shivakumar, but he rejects the request as Kenny's former identity as Shivakumar had died and he is going to spend his life for Meenakshi.
Cast
Vikram as Shivakumar/Kenny Thomas/Arjun Rathore/Imran
UTV Motion Pictures commenced an innovative title contest in Twitter, and it received massive response from Vikram fans.[5] Vikram was revealed to play the role of a blind man, who practices the technique of human echolocation, the ability to detect objects, their position and size by sensing echoes.[6] Vikram underwent special sessions with Daniel Kish, an internationally renowned expert of human echolocation.[7] The team had planned to bring Kish to Chennai for the audio launch ceremony.[8]Anushka was chosen to portray Vikram's wife in the film.[9]Amy Jackson plays a British-born-Tamil girl in the film and was said to dub for herself as well.[10] Telugu actor Jagapati Babu was selected to play villain.[11]
Filming
Filming commenced in Chennai in early December 2011 and was to be held in various locations in the US for 60 days and later in Delhi and various locations across southern Tamil Nadu.[12][13] Sources said that the film would be entirely shot in Los Angeles city.[14] Almost 50 per cent of the shoot was completed with the Delhi and Chennai schedules.[4] While "delays in getting the visa for the entire cast and crew" was the official reason given for the change of location from the US to the UK, sources told that the move was also necessitated to keep the budget from skyrocketing.[4][15] Some scenes were shot in UK,[16] including a song and dance scene shot at Botany Bay in Kent.[17]Lakshmi Rai joined the team in London in April 2012.[18] A duet song between Vikram and Amy was shot on the River Thames.[19]
The soundtrack album was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, featuring lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar.[20] It is the 25th album of the music director.
Release
Thaandavam was produced on a budget of ₹400 million (US$4.8 million).[21] The film helped raise ₹2 million (US$24,000) for the National Association of Blind (NAB) through its premiere show donor passes.[22] The film released about 1000+ screens worldwide.[23] The satellite rights of the film were sold to STAR Vijay.[24] The film was later dubbed in Hindi under the title Desh Prem The Real Hero.[25]
Critical reception
Thaandavam received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. The Times of India rated the film 3/5, writing "Director Vijay and actor Vikram collaborate again in this movie after their earlier successful outing in Deiva Thirumagal, And Thaandavam'has everything going for it – big cast, good locations, a story with potential and a competent director – yet the result is far from satisfactory because of a weak and meandering screenplay, and poor pacing."[26]Rediff's Pavithra Srinivasan wrote that the film was a "damp squib" and gave 2 out of 5 stars.[27] Indiaglitz wrote: "Thaandavam has it's [sic] good sides and it's [sic] bad ones".[28] Sify's reviewer claimed that it was "Vikram and him alone who diverts your attention from the film's little logical script flaws and spellbinds you with an endearing act that is Thaandavam's biggest strength".[29]in.com's critic stated that it was a "neat revenge saga", further adding that it was "worth a watch for its neat screenplay and lavish production values", while giving it 3 out of 5.[30] Prakash Upadhyaya of Oneindia.in gave 3/5 and wrote "Thaandavam is not glamorous but it is rich. It does not have masala elements yet it is entertaining". Tamilko wrote: "Thaandavam’s dreary screenplay hampers the much needed pace for a film set in espionage backdrop. Though Vikram greatly rescues the movie, the dull and predictable sequences doesn’t help Thaandavam’s course".[31] The Hindu described it as a fiery dance of the righteous.[32]
