Madhavan has done action films before. But this time he pulls out all stops. Hair falling to his shoulders, eyes not blinking and teeth clenched in a snide smirk, he plays the lonely crusader with passion and sincerity.

Director Seeman's rhetorical romp into the range of the action star is staged with precise movements of the hero's limbs. The narrative follows suit, though not the entire way.

The plot gives the crusader a street-wise swagger and some brilliant lines about social injustice. But the characters are all cardboard representatives of the crime pages of newspapers. Emaciated victims, peasants and urchins posturing pathetically to enhance the hero's messianic image.

In the midst of all the sound and fist signifying the fury of a self-appointed reformist, Thambi (Madhavan) finds the time to romance the dancer-heroine (Pooja). Comic touches are also insinuated into the script through the hero's sidekick, and the action sequences are shot with clenched conviction.

Thambi wears a look of lingering self-righteousness. It's not easy to identify with the hero's ever-indignant anger, as he smashes the wrongdoers to the pulp. Thambi has a rather unusual way of dealing with social offenders. Rather than annihilate them, he reforms them.

The plot's over-weaning idealism is seldom supported by the depths of conviction that made Nana Patekar and Amitabh Bachchan such studies in barbed social indignance.

"Thambi" would have worked a lot better if the hero's hurt and anger at social injustice had been propped up with more credible episodes to sanction his messianic zeal. All we see is the leading man exercising his right to take the law into his hand because the systems of governance have failed.

More brawn than brain, the hero makes you more angry than concerned. Sadly enough, Madhavan gets nowhere beyond the realm of the vigilante gone awry. So busy is he feeling the burden of the world's injustice that Thambi seldom gives us a chance to feel his pain.

Technically "Thambi" scores far better marks than the average Tamil film. The art work by Maniraj and Balsubramaniam's cinematography are poised with confidence on the theme's hyper-requirements.

Finally it's up to Madhavan to shoulder the burden of his character's messianic zeal. He manages double-quick.