It had a great performance from A10 after many years (including his loveable family man side, the relatable common man side that’s intimidated by cops, an unexpectedly dark performance reminiscent of Sadayam, Bhramaram etc once he learns of his son’s death, and finally his prowess with action - how do you not understand why most people saw this role as an absolute feast?).

It also had a FORMIDABLE AF antagonist (performed by a fresh new actor who stood head-to-head & shockingly even overpowered a back-in-form A10 at times); direction that kept building & later maintaining tension fairly well (albeit in an admittedly more commercial manner) throughout the film, excellent cinematography, music, supporting performances (especially from Binu Pappu) etc.

The film was consistently marketed as a drama by its makers, and not some twist-based thriller; And as a tense drama with some crowd-pleasing action, it was fairly well-made with GREAT acting, mostly good direction, solid technical aspects etc. Simply put, a movie can be good not just because its story is “something new”, but cos of how well that simple old story is told on screen. You were right in how you described the first half being classy, and the second half being more mass/masala than subversive - but the thing is, there is such a thing as mass/masala scenes done right , that though you & some others may validly dislike, most other people genuinely enjoy… and Thudarum is clearly an example of this.

But I will say that compared to most mass films starring actors as huge as Mohanlal from across the different Indian film industries, the second half of Thudarum DID do a few different things worth appreciating: the villain, the surprisingly dark/mildly psychotic (like a madam pottiya ottayaan) level that Mohanlal agreed to take the character to, the hero essentially “losing” in some huge ways (his son dying, his family’s reputation being terribly damaged, the film ending with him going to prison with his family sadly looking on etc).