Thodari works best when viewed as a spoof of the thriller genre. It appears Prabu Solomon drew inspiration from Radha Mohan's Payanam, which feels fresh because of its train setting. There isn’t a clearly defined plot—at least not until the interval—and the movie unfolds like a collection of events occurring on a train traveling from New Delhi to Chennai. A diverse group of people are aboard the train. Among them is the pantry team led by Chandrakanth (played by Thambi Ramaiah), and Poochiyappan (Dhanush) is one of its members. Poochi's romantic interest, Saroja (Keerthy Suresh), works as a makeup artist for an actress who’s also on board; her role is intended to provide humor. A central minister (Radha Ravi) is another passenger, and his NSG commando (Harish Uthaman) has anger management issues, making Poochi and Saroja the target of his frustration. The pace during these scenes feels slow—more like a local train than an express—but the comedic moments between Dhanush and Thambi Ramaiah are entertaining enough to distract from this. It’s only nearing the interval that some kind of plot begins to surface, when the train's driver dies in his cabin and the train starts accelerating (and the film itself gains momentum). Although the storyline starts to resemble a comical version of Tony Scott's Unstoppable—the director attempts to deflect this with a line: "It’s not necessary to watch every Hollywood movie to have ideas"—the scenes evolve into a satire, focusing on media sensationalism and political opportunism. In his previous film, Kayal, Prabu Solomon used a disaster like the 2004 tsunami to enhance a romantic story. With Thodari, he uses the romance between the main characters to create a situation that borders on disaster. He shifts between comedic and mock-serious tones, which helps us overlook the poorly staged romantic and thriller elements. The large number of supporting actors—ranging from Radha Ravi, Karunakaran, and Darbuka Siva to A Venkatesh and Chinni Jayanth—prevent the film from becoming dull, while Dhanush, who seems primarily used for his star power, delivers a good performance in what is essentially a B-movie, providing comedy, romance, and heroic moments.

Source on TMDB