Tamil commercial films are always at it to bring decent stories coupled with action-packed masala. The emotions sometimes run so high that one gets carried away by them as well. But what happens when there is only emotion and action, and the rest of the film does not make any sense at all? Thiruvin Kural is one such film. Written and directed by Harish Prabhu, the movie is about a mute man who goes through turbulent times when his father is admitted to the hospital. Will his father get out of it alive?

Thiruvin Kural begins with a teenage girl going back home all alone, as it is about to start raining. There are no streetlights, and the girl is in a hurry to reach home. As the rain starts pouring, she notices that she is surrounded by goons with weapons of various kinds who are there to kill her. The girl, by the look on her face, knows who the men are, and she is repulsed by their presence but is not surprised to see them at all. Will they kill her?

The narrative goes into flashback to a month ago, where the viewers are introduced to a young man, Thiru, who has been mute since his birth and speaks only in sign language. He can hear things only if they are said at close range. Thiru is engaged to Bhavani, and they are going to get married very soon. Thiru and Bhavani are very much in love, and they have bonded over many things so far. The way the engaged couple interacts, it looks like a love marriage, as Bhavani knows how to be with Thiru. She understands sign language, and she can interact and communicate with him effortlessly. Thiru and Bhavani’s family are happy with the match. Thiru is close to his father, and they share a genuine friendship. The man is also happy to see his son engaged to a wonderful woman.

For many years, Thiru’s father has been a local contractor engaged in supervising the construction of a building. Thiru, being a civil engineer as well, helps his father with the work. Thiru is an easygoing, affable man whose only trouble is his anger and impatience. Thiru tends to lose his temper too soon, something his father and his family want him to work on. One day, at the worksite, his father gets seriously injured because a sack of cement falls on him. Thiru was distressed to see his father lying in that state in the government hospital. As Thiru shifts his father to general ward, they come across four men who are the staff at the hospital, but by the looks of it, they come off as the biggest troublemakers. One look at them and it is easy to understand that they are the same men who had harassed the young girl in the beginning of Thiruvin Kural. The girl happens to be the niece of Thiru. Out of these men; one is a ward boy, one is a morgue worker, one a security guard and the last one is a liftman. These men have a small syndicate going on, and they are a creepy group of people who make the patients uncomfortable. These men are also known for being bullies and acting like rowdies without drawing much attention. They know they can carry out any number of nefarious activities in the hospital as long as they make sure nobody knows what they are up to.

As Thiru’s father is admitted with a head injury, the assigned Dr. Venugopal lets Thiru know that his father will be in the hospital for a few days as they need to do a thorough test to see if there is any internal injury or not. As it is a government hospital, a lot of the work has to be done by the patient’s family themselves. Bhavani and Thiru’s sister keep moving around the hospital, the creepy liftman, Aarumugam, keeps ogling them, making them feel uncomfortable. Aarumugam comes across as an overtly confident man who thinks he can get away with eve-teasing women. Thiru initially loses his temper at Aarumugam, but he is asked to stand down by his family because they are at a public place. The same Aarumugam acts indecently with Thiru’s family members, including Bhavani, outside the hospital. Thiru, at this point, loses it, but again he is asked to stand down and not react because Thiru is a better person. What does not make sense here is why the women did not file any complaints against these men, who have been a nuisance so far. A complaint would make sure Aarumugam and his accomplices were thrown out. Aarumugam and Thiru’s first face-off happens when Thiru is out to get coffee for his father and tries to showcase his anger towards this man. Aarumugam gets physical with him, and Thiru makes sure to slap the man hard, which breaks his tooth. Thiru did not expect a proper fight with this man; he was hoping to be a passive-aggressive tussle, but the physical violence was too much for him to bear. Thiru did not stop from retaliating hard against the man who was being nothing but a creep to the women. The back-and-forth fight continues, where Thiru manages to beat Aarumugam’s men to a pulp. This angers Aarumugam and his accomplices even more. They didn’t expect Thiru to be this strong. They wanted to be the bullies here and make Thiru crawl. They underestimated him but they are not ready to back off. 

What Does Thiru Do To Save His Father? Is His Father Dead Or Alive?

As Aarumugam and his accomplices are livid to see Thiru fighting his way out, they come across Dr. Venugopal, who is having a full-blown argument with a woman, possibly his girlfriend. Aarumugam tries to pacify the situation and makes sure the woman does not get violent with the doctor. Aarumugam tries his best to break up the fight, but the woman is constantly asking Aarumugam to stay out of the fight. Out of sheer anger, Aarumugam kills the woman instantly with his sharp, broken tooth. Aarumugam is a misogynistic man who has no patience in him to understand what women want; in this case, he killed her out of pure ego. Dr. Venugopal is also stunned to see the woman dead in front of him. The doctor did not want this as he was trying to end the argument. With Aarumugam killing the woman, Dr. Venugopal feels as if he got dragged into the murder and there won’t be a way out for him from this mess.

Aarumugam and his men were also hired to kill a rich family who were driving back. Aarumugam stopped the vehicle midway and slaughtered the family and took off with the money they had on them. The woman who had hired the four men to carry out this gruesome task came by the hospital asking for her share of the money that was decided at the beginning of the deal. Aarumugam and the three men take her to the topmost floor of the hospital. On the way, Thiru’s niece happens to see the woman. Aarumugam and his men butcher the woman to death. On their way down to dump the body, Thiru’s niece partially sees the dead body of the same woman she saw just a while back. The girl is in shock, and she wants to stay away from these men. They do not threaten her, but the sight of them is enough to scare her. She surely knows these men are horrible people, but she will have to end up seeing them often at the hospital because of her grandfather’s treatment. Aarumugam and his men are also informed about black money being transported by a rich businessman to another part of the city. As they commence the operation, they kill the businessman and his driver and are in the process of stealing the money. Unfortunately for them, Thiru is a witness to their robbery, and he beats Aarumugam’s men black and blue out of sheer anger. This attempted robbery and the killing of the businessman becomes news, but Aarumugam and his men don’t get arrested.

These four men are irked at Thiru for disrupting their robbery, and they want payback. Aarumugam overhears  about Thiru’s father being discharged in two days, and to thwart that plan, Aarumugam asks Dr. Venugopal to give Thiru’s father an injection that would cause him to extend his stay in the hospital. The doctor is reluctant, but his hands are tied, and he goes ahead with it. As planned, Thiru’s father gets severe aches caused by ulcers induced by the injection, and he is asked to stay back in the hospital for a few more days. To make his days hell, Thiru and his father are asked to get a signature on a piece of paper, and they travel from one end of the hospital to another, realizing that the paper is not that important and neither does it require a signature nor Thiru’s father’s presence. Thiru’s father’s health deteriorates and he is frustrated at being put through this ordeal. The men are trying to make sure that Thiru and his family have the worst of times in this hospital so they can get back at him for the money they lost. They don’t plan to stop or slow down because the anger they carry in them is beyond fathomable. 

To further corner Thiru, the men follow his niece and plan to kill her as well. This happens to be the first scene of Thiruvin Kural. Thiru shows up in time to save her, but unfortunately, Aarumugam has the last laugh. He pushes the girl into the sewer. This incident becomes news, and Aarumugam and his men abscond. The police are on the lookout for them, and they know it won’t be long before Thiru or the police catch up with them. Aarumugam is sure Thiru will come after them, and he does. Thiru confronts Aarumugam and his men, his goal being to end the ordeal by getting rid of these men. They had reached a point where they had harmed his father and niece, and he was sure they would not stop at that. He kills all of them because he knows that these men being alive is dangerous not just for him, but for society as well. Thiru also saves the pregnant wife of Dr. Venugopal, the man who had spiked his father’s glucose in the hospital. He saves the woman and brings her back to the hospital because he knows it right to save people in despair. He is nothing like Aarumugam and his men, who did not show any humanity towards this woman. As Thiru returns, he is told that his father left the hospital without informing anyone. Thiruvin Kural ends with Thiru finding his father at a bus stop, crying, and begging his son to let him out of the hospital because the pain he is suffering is too much to withstand, and the doctors are not helping him. Thiru, being an obedient son, obliges to his father’s request. Understanding the pain his father went through because of an accident and the pain Aarumugam put him through, Thiru is in no mood to keep his father at the hospital. He would want his father to be at home while recuperating. His father survives the treatment he was given in the hospital, and he lives to see Thiru get married to Bhavani. All are happy to see Thiru’s father recover and be hail and hearty: and just like every other tale, they lived happily ever after.

Thiruvin Kural is a Tamil-language film streaming on Netflix with subtitles.