It seems Atlee has learned many techniques from his guru Director S.Shankar and it was obvious from his first movie Raja Rani. Actors like Arya, Jai, Nayanthara, Nasriya, Sathya Raj and Santhanam did lead roles. The movie got a clean ‘U’ certificate.
Raja Rani’s running time is 165 minutes and the director has followed the same pattern for ‘Theri‘. Just like ‘Raja Rani’, ‘Theri’ has also got a clean ‘U’ and the running time of the movie is 158 minutes.
The running time is more or less similar. In ‘Raja Rani’, Nazriya’s death will bring a change and here in similar way, there is Samantha’s death. Atlee seems to have used the same formula to taste success. But as he has a powerful lead hero, he has used more commercial elements. Even Director Mahendran has praised atlee as a ‘Man of Perfection’.