It seems as if the Tamil movie audience and the movie industry are re-discovering the beauty of Tamilnadu’s villages and rural life. In the past few months, we have seen quite a few movies set amidst the fields of Tamilnadu’s rustic, rural areas and Thirumagan too is one such film.

Shot in and around Madurai and Theni, Thirumagan is the story of a man’s struggle to make the right decisions in his own life; decisions which will affect the lives of many loved ones around him.

Thangapandi (S.J. Suryah) is a fun-loving villager, quite jobless and quite the loafer. He meets Aiyakka (Meera Jasmine) a pretty and perky seller of mud pots and their first meeting is a comedy of errors where he ends up breaking her pots and she nearly ends up breaking his bones! Nevertheless, a relationship begins to bloom and soon, they fall in love.

Thangapandi is no loner and has a big family, including his sister’s daughter, his “mora ponnu” Rasathi (Preethi Varma).

 Life goes on simply enough and all is well on the home front, while Thangapandi’s romance with Aiyakka grows and they plan to get married. Here’s where the twists and turns come in.

Thangapandi’s father Malaichamy (Vijayakumar) visits his close family friend (Radha Ravi) one day when a potential groom’s family comes for his daughter’s hand. Unfortunately, the boy and his family reject Vairam (Lakshana) because she is physically challenged.

Upset and indignant, Malaichamy intervenes and reasons with the visiting family, asking if they would have rejected this girl if they had had a daughter in THEIR home with such a superficial malady. To which, they ask him if HE would marry off his son to such a girl. Malaichamy straightens and promises to his friend (Radha Ravi) that his son Thangapandi is like Lord Rama – he would never defy his father and would indeed marry Vairam if Malaichamy asked him to. With the promise made, Malaichamy leaves the house.

Meanwhile, the womenfolk in Thangapandi’s house all decide that Rasathi is meant for Thangapandi and they plan for his wedding with the “mora ponnu”. 

Now, Thangapandi’s seemingly simple life becomes a whirlpool of family troubles, promises made and 3 girls to choose from as his wife. When Malaichamy tells his son of his promise to marry him off to Vairam, Thangapandi refuses flat out and tells everyone of his relationship with Aiyakka. Malaichamy is devastated – so much that he dies literally of heartbreak that he was not able to fulfil his promise to his friend.

Thangapandi’s life is now drastically different. Rasathi has been betrothed to him in the traditional South Indian way for years – will he marry her? Vairam may not be able to find a suitable match because of her physical malady and their families could be permanently torn apart if he doesn’t keep his father’s last wish before he died. And Aiyakka? The love of his life, the brave and fiery woman whom he had planned to spend his life with, what of her?

Who does Thangapandi tie the thaali to? How does he come to a decision and how does everyone else react to this decision? What about the 2 women he does NOT marry? The remainder of the film is about his struggles with these decisions.

One has seen S.J. Suryah in completely urban settings so far and it’s nice to see something different from him. In Thirumagan, his role is very “villager”, complete with big moustache and the ever-white veshti. He has honed on his acting skills too and has given a pretty decent performance in this film.

Meera Jasmine’s charm is irresistible. She looks and plays the part of a sweet-yet-exuberant village belle who is also quite independent in her thoughts and life. Her role is probably the most interesting, especially in the way she helps Thangapandi make the decision that would affect his life as well as hers.