Thudarum

Shanmugham drives an old Ambassador as a taxi. The car is more than a vehicle to him; he has driven the same one for years and the household lives off it. He is a quiet man who avoids trouble and looks after his family. One day a corrupt police officer impounds the car and will not give it back. Trying to get it back, Shanmugham walks into an arrangement, and the matter goes far past a car. Tharun Moorthy directs. Mohanlal plays Shanmugham and Shobana plays his wife. Mohanlal and Shobana are among the best known pairings in Malayalam cinema and appeared together here for the first time in many years, which is what was most discussed about the film. The first half moves like a family film; the second hardens completely and the genre changes. That break is the film's structure. Mohanlal's part stands outside the action moulds of his late career; the character is built as tired and fearful rather than strong, and the transformation comes out of that. It was released in 2025 and was among the highest earning Malayalam films of that year. Its limits are the length and the ending; the narrative stretches in the section of reckoning, and the level of violence does not sit with the tone of the first half. Who it is for: viewers who like Malayalam cinema and character driven revenge narratives. Who it is not for: the first half is slow, the change of genre is abrupt, and the final scenes are harsh.