Thimayya & Thimayya review: Anant Nag and Diganth shine in this heart-warming tale of modern-day relationships

3/5

Story: Down-on-luck Vinci Thimayya (Diganth) wants to sell an ancestral property and move to Lisbon with fiancée Sowmya (Shubra Aiyappa) for a fresh start. Vinci’s uncle (Venkatesh Sriram) is on board with this plan but wants the younger Thimayya to take responsibility of his grandpa, Sr Thimayya (Anant Nag) for a few months. Together again after several decades, the two men must find a way to bond again.

Review: Thimayya & Thimayya is what those in industry circles would call a typical multiplex film - it’s a modern-day tale with a very cosmopolitan vibe to it. This is not a film for fans of hardcore commercial cinema, but will work for those looking for something different. Give it a chance and you may just realize it isn’t all that bad.

Debutant director Sanjay Sharma has a simple story – A reunion of a grandfather and grandson, one still mourning the loss of a son, and the other harbouring abandonment issues. The common thread connecting them is a café that Sr Thimayya’s son (Jr Thimayya’s father) ran before he passed away. The old man wants to reopen it, while the grandson would rather sell it and head off with his fiancée. How Sr Thimayya gets Jr Thimayya on board his grand scheme forms the rest of the narrative.

Unfortunately, all of this plays out over two-and-a-half hours, which feels like eternity. Anant Nag and Diganth have great chemistry together and the veteran actor, especially, is an absolute joy to watch. It is palpable that Anant Nag had fun playing Sr Thimayya, even though he does look a tad frail onscreen. Some of the early scenes between Diganth and Anant could have been avoided, like, for instance, the whole trumpet sequence; it didn’t really serve any purpose and there were better ways to establish him as a cranky old man. The film gets a lot better once both men are on the same boat.

Thimayya & Thimayya has two leading ladies – there’s Sowmya (Shubra Aiyappa), Vinci’s go-getter girlfriend/fiancée, who has been more than supportive of his business attempts. She gets a song-and-dance routine and is then packed off to Lisbon, which then allows Vinci to reconnect with his neighbour Jyotsana (Aindrita), who is back to live with her mother, after losing her husband. Jyotsana becomes a positive influence on the two Thimayyas and helps them reconnect and overcome whatever little feelings of animosity they had for each other. Between the two ladies, it is Shubra who gets the short end of the stick in the larger scheme of things, with the lesser role. She tries to put up a dignified performance, but her body language and dialogue delivery leave much to be desired. These are still early days for her in Kannada cinema; she’s only on her second film, so there’s scope for improvement.

As Jyotsana, Aindrita gets a role that she’s rightly described as different from her earlier onscreen outings. She looks good and comes up with a restrained performance that is on point and pleasant to watch, complementing Diganth and Anant Nag every step of the way. Also notable are Vineeth Beep Kumar (of Jordindian fame) as Vinci’s bestie Andy and Prakash Thuminad as caretaker Jaganna.

Verdict: Thimayya & Thimayya is a feel-good film, and the gut feeling is that it is the kind of movie that audiences would love to see as a lazy Sunday watch, but in the comfort of their homes. But if a movie outing is on your mind, give Thimayya & Thimayya a dekko.