It is not often that one sees such a classic movie, or a trendsetter such as this in Indian Cinema. The combination of veteran actor Sarathkumar, rising star Ashok Selvan, Vignesh Raja’s direction, a taut screenplay, and merciless editing makes Por Thozil a winner.

Por Thozil (roughly translates to Art of War) is more than just a crime thriller. It is a story of how all the main characters in the movie go through their own challenges. In a recent interview, director Vignesh Raja said exactly this. It is about the internal conflicts the individuals face in their lives, the criminals and the cops who are looking for them.

This is a riveting tense thriller, that, unlike most Indian films, does not distract with unrelated subplots or unnecessary romance. The plot is also kept taut, without any fights or song-dance sequences. There is humor in the movie, but it has dark undertones.

The movie begins with two policemen riding in a jeep. One is a newly married young man who is not happy that he cannot spend time with his new wife. The other, an older cop, picks on the younger man’s insecurities, joking that his wife may find someone else to satisfy her needs in the absence of her husband. The conversation is stopped when the vehicle begins to stall near a wooded area. The two men get off the vehicle. A bolt of bright lighting suddenly throws light on an area in the woods, revealing the corpse of a dead woman.

Sure enough, the area is soon flooded with cops and forensic experts. It is revealed that the woman has been tied up, tortured, and killed in a brutal fashion. To make matters worse, there has been a similar murder elsewhere but bearing a close resemblance to this one, leading the police to believe that the same individual is responsible for both killings.

Then we are introduced to the two main protagonists in the movie. The first is a rookie cop, Prakash (Ashok Selvan), who has just joined the force. While he has stellar credentials and is a great marksman, his lack of actual experience has rendered him insecure, fearful, and lacking in self-confidence.

The other is a veteran, Loganathan, a no-nonsense investigator who has little patience and has no time for any pleasantries or small talk and a razor-like dedication to his work. He is rude and disrespectful to his peers and is hard to work with.

Tensions erupt when Lokanathan is forced to team up with Prakash to investigate the murders. Prakash is in for some hard treatment. Lokanathan berates, belittles, and insults Prakash as the two forge an uneasy relationship.

There is a tense scene where Loganathan and Prakash enact the murder, with Prakash playing the victim. This is one of the best scenes in the movie.

In another great scene, Prakash shows his knowledge of forensics while examining a body. Loganathan tries his best to complement Prakash but cannot do so.

Ashok Selvan masterfully plays Prakash, with a deer-in-the-headlights look, while Sarath Kumar maintains his strict morose demeanor throughout the movie.

With them is Veena, a technical expert to assist in the investigation. This is one place where the screenplay has a glaring unnecessary error. Veena is an MIT graduate. It is beyond unrealistic that an MIT graduate would take on a low-end job with the police force to assist in the investigation. At one point, she tells Loganathan that she would ‘digitize’ all the documents and put them on the database. Honestly, do they need an MIT graduate to scan documents and load them into a cloud storage like S3 or GCP?

I digress. Back to the plot. The bodies pile up, and the two men continue their investigation using their own methods. Prakash does his research for similar crimes in old newspapers. Loganathan makes progress through an interview with a potential lead. The two converge on one person as the possible suspect.

At this point, the movie shifts gear quite smoothly from an investigative mode to a cat-and-mouse game with the suspect. The thrills keep coming until it seems to be nearing the climax.

At this point, the screenplay has one more surprise for the viewer. There is a big twist, and almost minutes before the end, we finally get to the actual climax.

There are several great aspects to this movie and its plot. For one thing, the cinematography is tight. There are minor flaws in the plot, and there are few unnecessary shots in the entire two and a half hours of the movie’s running time. Two ingenious facets of the movie stand out in my mind. There is a scene about a ‘movie ticket’ that is intense and heart-pounding. The second is a twist that involves ‘dimples’ which was simply brilliant!

Besides, the narrative of backstories is very well done too. For one character, the story of his past is explicitly told through a flashback. For another character, it is implied through the person’s hallucinations and a minor flashback. Finally

, for another character, the person’s past and his motivation for his behavior are implied indirectly through dialogue. You have to see the movie to understand my cryptic descriptions. Another noteworthy part of the movie is the cast includes veteran thespian Sarath Babu, who died just a few days after the movie was released.

The movie ends with a positive message of hope and inspiration. This is probably the best crime thriller ever made in Tamil cinema. In 2018, the Tamil movie Ratchsan and 2019’s Kolaigaran, both received positive reviews from critics. They are indeed good movies. However, they fall short compared to this movie. Do not miss this rare Tamil spine-chilling masterpiece!