Pathu Thala teaser review: Vintage Simbu promises countless over-the-top punchlines in this gangster drama

Tamil superstar Simbu is quite upbeat about his upcoming film Pathu Thala. Hours before the teaser release, Simbu tweeted his excitement about presenting the first glimpse of his movie to his fans. "Just saw the teaser of #PathuThala All I can say is get ready for our #Bhai’s Sambava," he tweeted earlier. 

The teaser opens with AGR introducing himself as a man who has no limits. And thus begins a series of punchlines designed to meet the approval of Simbu's core fanbase. Sample this: 'I didn't come up in life by climbing the steps but by stepping up on my rivals." Or this, "I don't know how many people perished or lived because of me." It has been a while since we saw Simbu deliver such over-the-top punchlines in movies. 

The dialogues paint Simbu's character as omnipotent but, he doesn't share the benevolence of the Almighty. He sort of takes pride in his ability to be utterly ruthless. And we also see common people wishing for his ruin for making their lives difficult. And there are those in power, who also hate Simbu's AGR. Filmmaker Gautham Menon played a key role in the movie. The film also stars Gautham Karthik as the second hero.

AGR seems short for AG Ravanan. And this is the film's title Pathu Thala, the 10 heads. Well, in the teaser, we have only seen the ruthless face of AGR. But, there seems to be more to his character than what meets the eye. AGR has a good sense of style. He has a thick salt-and-pepper beard and always dresses in dark colours giving a sense of menace to his persona. 

Pathu Thala is the Tamil remake of the Kannada hit Mufti. Starring Kannada movie star Shivarajkumar and Sriimurali, the film was released in 2017. In the Kannada original, Shivarajkumar took a subtle approach to play the seasoned and wise gangster Bhairathi Ranagal. Simbu, however, seems to have gone the other way with superlative descriptions of his powers.

Pathu Thala is written and directed by Obeli N. Krishna. And it's due in cinemas on March 30.