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Sketch (played by Vikram) works as a repo-man, and excels at his job. He meets Amuthavalli (played by Tamannaah), a college student, when taking her friend's scooter and eventually falls in love with her. When she sees past the rough exterior to the kind man inside, she begins to care for him, too, despite her parents' objections. Later, to settle an old grievance for his boss, Settu (Hareesh Peradi), Sketch works out a plan to take the classic Fiat of a local gangster, "Royapuram" Kumar (played by Baburaj), an action that sets off a tragic chain of events for Sketch and his friends.

The main story, that of Sketch doing his job, fighting bad guys, and caring for his friends, is entertaining and even occasionally moving. The romance part of the plot is the weak link; there is little chemistry between Tamannaah and Vikram, and though she gives a good performance in general, there is no zing in their scenes together. In the other aspects of the film, however, Vikram is fully convincing as Sketch. The songs and background music are only average, but the cinematography is nicely done and the action scenes are fun. There is a most surprising twist, and the movie is worth watching if only for that.

A naïve village girl, Manjula (Nithya Menon), is chosen for a reality show planned by Zareena (Shweta Menon) of Real TV. The point of the show is to follow Manju from 8 a.m. To 8 p.m. Every day, watching as she deals with real life situations. Manju and Zareena share a flat during the shooting, and become close, with Zareena acting as a mentor to Manju as she navigates the consequences, good and bad, of the show. Manju meets Suryan (Unni Mukundan) and romance seems to be in sight, but things take an unexpected turn, and Zareena must make drastic decisions about the show.

(Cast also includes Maniyanpilla Raju, Siddique, and Baburaj.)

This Malayalam language flim started off extremely good. It is immediately engaging, with a compelling plot, both humorous and touching, and realistic characters. Manju is extremely likable, and was played excellently by Nithya Menon. The chemistry between her and Unni Mukundan was perfectly played, and the relationship between the two women equally good. Nithya Menon, Unni Mukundan, and Shweta Menon were all natural and convincing; the secondary cast also gave strong performances. The music, while not prominent, was generally lovely. The movie looked good as well, nicely filmed and realistic.

Why, then, the three stars?

In the last thirty-seven minutes, Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty fell into a complicated mess culminating in a dissatisfying and underwhelming conclusion. I felt cheated and terribly disappointed.

I would still recommend Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty on the strength of Nithya Menon's performance and the plot of the first two and a quarter hours, but with viewer warned in advance about the inadequate ending.

Dev Pratap Sharna (played by Vikram), a ruthlessly determined police officer, is transferred to a province to capture the dangerous tribal leader/villain Beera (Abhishek Bachchan). Beera kidnaps Dev's wife, Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), beginning a violent and bloody fourteen day chase that ends in a showdown between the two men.

( Nikhil Dwivedi and Ravi Kishan also feature, with cameos by Priyamani and Govinda)

First off, let me say that a thriller of this sort is not my usual kind of movie. I started it out of curiosity, merely wanting to see how well the married Bachchans acted together, only intending to watch a few minutes. I finished it two hours and sixteen minutes later because they are great together (at times electric), because Abhishek is so convincing he scared the heck out of me, and because Vikram lives up to his glowing reputation. Aishwarya, one of the most beautiful women alive, is impressive in this extremely emotional role. Both the supporting cast and the cameo actors give solid, believable performances, The camera work is stunning -- angles, colors, points-of-view -- and the entire film has a gritty, striking beauty. The music (songs and incidental both) is often haunting and always highly effective. As for the suspenseful story, it is chilling, well-plotted, nicely paced, and wholly engrossing. As I said, not my typical film, but it was fully worth ten stars.