Like its hero and robbers, the film also wears a mask. Thunivu is basically a social commentary that masquerades as a heist film. Suddenly, we find ourselves in the Sathuranga Vettai zone (Vinoth’s debut film). Vinoth’s criticism of the media, police, politicians, and even the public is witty and street-smart. The characterisation of the corrupt journalist and his dealings with an equally corrupt police officer are funny and worrying at the same time. Everything in the film happens in the broad daylight, but they are all pretty dark. The senior journalist and the policeman keep discussing a college girl, and whatever they say about her is problematic. What’s more worrying is the casual tone in which they talk. That’s exactly the intention of the film: to show the real crimes that happen right under our noses.

Yet, sometimes all of this commentary comes at the cost of the film becoming pedestrian and didactic. The style and the mystery of the first half quickly fizzle out post-interval, and the film starts telling one sob story after another, which is incongruous with the cold and dark nature of the film. You can’t expect one to laugh at some morbid jokes of the protagonist one moment and then bleed for hapless victims in another. On top of that, it is also unsettling when you realise that all this criticism comes from the protagonist, who is basically a contract robber. The character arc of Dark Devil is a bit sketchy and unclear. You don’t know where he is coming from, and that makes it hard to completely root for him.