Special 26 is one movie that I have watched more than thrice from theatres itself and numerous times in home video. The heist drama based on the infamous 1987 opera house robbery was noted for its racy screenplay and its realistic execution, keeping apart the ‘cold acting skills of Akshay Kumar’. Suriya is one actor who has an aversion towards the remakes unlike his contemporaries. Yet at his lowest point in his career , he has taken a risky decision by choosing a remake helmed by two film old young director Vignesh Shivn. Thaana Serndha Koottam in one word, is a spiced up version of the orginal realistic one, catering to b and c class audience in Tamil Nadu, which Suriya films failed to deliver in last 4 years. TSK revolves around a group of people getting together and posing as a CBI raid team to commit heists. The core story has been adapted, however this is not a scene by scene replica of the orginal. Contrary to popular opinion that Suriya is the king of romance due to Vaaranam Aayiram, Silunu oru kaadhal and half a dozen movies he had done in his earlier phase of his career, I believe Suriya is one actor who can handle humour than no lead actor can in the contemporary tamil cinema.His performances in earlier films like Mayaavi and Pithamagan testifies that. It is also refreshing to see him as a boy next door persona after a long time rather than running relentlessly after goons. TSK is actually cakewalk for suriya whose career consists of performances like Athreya, Anbu selvan , Sanjay Ramaswamy, Suriya krishnan, Nandha and more. Karthik, SureshMenon, Nandha, Ramya Krishnan, Sathyan played their parts well. Vignesh Shivn had a knack in writing dialogues. I remember him saying in an interview that he take one scene at a time, keep on improvising it and only tries to write next scene in a way that can keep the interest of the audience on hook, rather than thinking about the whole plot.From addressing ‘Anbaana Fans ‘ in social media interactions and thanking them in the title cards to demolishing the stereotypes associated with Suriya with dialogues like ‘‘Uyarvu dhan Mukyam’’, “yevanda sonnath njan ketta vartha pesaydhenn”, he knows the pulse of young audience.. He also tried to break the conventional jinx of mainstream tamil cinema format in a lot of scenes. His unconventional approach is evident by ‘trolling’ Suriya’s own iconic character ‘Durai Singam’, to the climax sequence in which Suriya tells ‘Podhum Sir..ithu vare mudiyile’. The scenes like cbi gang staring at Sathyan, the scenes involving RJ Balaji and even the interval phone conversation shows Vignesh’s brilliance in building up the narrative without loosing the interest of audience. Vignesh also knows how to picturise songs beautifully. TSK was often paralleled with Suriya’s 2009 blockbuster Ayan for this reason in many online discussions. Anirudh is improvising his stature with every movie. TSK is his best album after ‘3’ and ‘‘Kaththi’. I liked every song in this album. It was also well placed in the movie. My personal favourites are ‘Peela peela’ and ‘Sodakku’. Editing was well done by Sreekar prasad, while other technical departments including D.O.P (One of the best in recent times) was impressive. On the downside, I personally felt Karthik’s character was not given adequate importance. Keerthy Suresh was’too much expressive’ in some scenes. It is quite difficult for a filmmaker while helming remake, to do justice to the orginal film, keeping the aesthetics of local populace in mind. In TSK, Vignesh Shivan has succeeded in adapting Special 26 in line with south indian culture to a large extent . The movie will also provide Suriya, a much needed comeback in TN Boxoffice. Verdict:3.5/5 A HILARIOUS HEIST DRAMA
