Etharkkum Thunindhavan - clearing the weeds

Etharkkum Thunindhavan

2022, Tamil

Director - Pandiraj

Stars - Suriya, Priyanka Arul Mohan, Vinay Rai, Satyaraj, Saranya Ponvannan

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐

Affectionately abbreviated as ET, Etharkkum Thunindhavan is quite long, at slightly less than 3 hours. You have to give the director credit for this, because he seems to enjoy juggling weak and tangential plots at the same time.

The first plot is for the family, with the parents of a young (?) man trying to help their son sync up with the woman of his dreams. 

The second is a feudal story of a village divided both physically by a river, and emotionally because of a failed marriage leading to suicide.

The third plot is about a brash young (?) advocate who turns vigilante to go after an evil dude who makes porn movies using women from the other side of the river and blackmails them. Those who blow the whistle on him and his gang are selectively done away with. While this third plot is really what this movie is supposed to be about, the other two stories stand in the way of it going very far.

This leaves us with an open second half which goes too far; and in fact, winds up being pretty creepy.

Just as creepy is Suriya playing the lead against a Ms. Arul Mohan's far too young leading lady. It's like watching those old 80s movies with NTR and Srividya.

The movie sets itself up for a sequel, but the current one has already made itself outdated.