The problems with Thoranai are sundry. First and foremost, it’s got a dead script. Nothing, simply nothing happens in the first half of the film.

Written and directed by debutant Saba Iyyapan, the six songs at regular intervals and Shriya Saran’s glamour in them is the only thing that wakes you up from your sleep while watching Thoranai, the mind-numbing new film at the cinemas this weekend.

Much like those bad eighties potboilers, Thoranai, too, is held together by a threadbare script centered on a predictable plot. Treatment is over-the-top, so indulgent that it fails to establish any connect.

Murugan (Vishal) comes to Chennai is search of his elder brother who had left home after their mother (Geeta) punishes the little boy. The mother, who is still guilty about the incident, craves for her son and now our hero swears that he will bring him back!

In Chennai, he meets two goons- Tamilarasu (Prakash Raj) and Guru (Kishore) who control the city and are always at loggerheads with each other. Murugan finally spots his brother (That’s the twist in the tale) and will he be able to reform him and take him back to his mother? We have the goonda gang, the police force led by an encounter specialist (Lal) and a state minister (Sayaji Shinde) who is after the brothers.

Told, and told and re-told, the characters, scenes, songs, comedy and even the mother-sentiments are a dampener. Vishal attempts at comedy with Santhanam and Parvai Muniamma is slack and the laughs aren’t coming. Despite some re-hashed music from Mani Sharma, the songs seem like they're only prolonging your misery.

Arbitrarily packing in elements of every genre without actually bothering to stop and see if the mix does work, Thoranai is like an overcooked stew.

Verdict: Below Average