Raghu Thatha story

Kayalvizhi (Keerthy Suresh) is a bank employee at Valluvenpettai branch of Central Indian Bank. She is a staunch feminist, anti-Hindi imposition activist, and moreover, a writer who publishes stories under a male pen name Ka Pandian. The one primarily responsible for shutting down Hindi organisation Ekta Sabha in her village along with her grandfather (MS Bhaskar), she is caught in the thick of things and forced into marriage. Much to her displeasure, she agrees and even proposes to her male friend and confidant Selvan (Ravindra Vijay), whose true colours are exposed soon.

Raghu Thatha review

A dying grandfather has three wishes before his lifespan gets the ultimate countdown. It is to have Chennai Buhari biryani, to take a photograph with MG Ramachandran, and finally see his granddaughter tie the knot. Now, in a rural village, and sometime in the 1900s, the family members are bound to fulfill the wishes. Well, the grandfather might have three wishes, two out of which can be possibly done without changing anyone else’s fate. But obviously what the relatives first set out to achieve is get their girl married off. Raghu Thatha mixes this plot with several other threads, which had enough capacity to spin as a standalone conflict. But.. it doesn’t.

To start with, Raghu Thatha has a lot going. It has got multiple sub-plots that deserve a conclusive arc of its own. There is Kayal and her grandfather who are up and arms against Hindi imposition, so much so that Kayal is adamant into not giving Hindi exams to get bank promotion. Kayal is also shown to be writing strong stories that tell a woman’s perspectives under the garb of a male author, and finally, her relationship with people around her, right from her colleagues to family members and friends whose dynamics and equations differ. Does Raghu Thatha utilise this to fullest effect with a cohesive narrative? Well, it attempts in a middling fashion to begin with.

Kayalvizhi’s primary characteristic is being woman with a voice in a place surrounded by regressive and patriarchal men, “progressive” male friend, and women who complies with existing gender norms. She says, “ponna adaka odakama iruka mudiyadhu (she cannot be coy and obedient like a woman), and Kayalvizhi’s nonchalant reaction when her father threatens of suicide, gives a hint how it is not the first time she is hearing this from her family. We also get to see her at office, who stands up for herself and her principles by denying to give promotion exams which demands her to learn Hindi. In the thick of things, her relationship with Selvan, who by now has exhibited himself as a “progressive” man amid men who blatantly are sexist and regressive, also becomes dynamically changing.

Raghu Thatha’s main drawback is it does not establish its main conflict. Is it Kayal’s discovery and realization on coming to know a man’s true colours, or is it the confusion to decide between principle and patriarchy. Kayalvizhi’s life becomes an array of difficult choices to make, as she has to judge what is the bigger problem, and there comes Raghu Thatha slope to begin with. The stances that the film makes about the Hindi imposition is also middling, because it never addresses the imposition part of it. There is also more scope to play around how the so-called progressive men can tend to be more vicious than the outright patriarchal men, that Raghu Thatha on a superficial and flippant terms.

The film, being a period drama, and the cotton sarees on Keerthy Suresh definitely inevitably reminds you of Mahanati days, a little more writing to know Kayal’s central conflict would have made this film even more engrossing and invested. But the film fails to capitalize on its themes by stepping on multiple. Having said that, the last 20 minutes of the film which involves almost every character, comes off as a surprise dessert, and very much in Crazy Mohan’s style of writing causing comedy of errors. But only if the film capitalized on satire and comedy through its course.

Raghu Thatha verdict

Raghu Thatha has got delicious plotlines, and has definitely got something going on. The sub-plots become interconnected, but the extent to which they are fleshed out, result to be middling. Certain one-liners work, and Keerthy Suresh manages to take most of the weight on her shoulders, but the film falls short of being a whole-heartedly satisfying film.

Raghu Thatha is running in theatres near you.

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