The Samuthirakani-starrer wears its Communist shirt proudly but fails to sell its politics convincingly Idealistic storytelling is flawed by default. Unfortunately, nine out of 10 Tamil films — broadly speaking — are idealistic. These stories routinely have a single male saviour who is often ‘the ideal citizen’ that us lesser mortals viewing the film should aspire to be. Fine. But what happens when idealism mixes with an ideology? You get Sangathalaivan. The good thing about this Manimaran directorial is that it is only two hours long, and Samuthirakani has fewer dialogues than perhaps what he desired. Consequently, he is also less preachy than his previous idealism-heavy films.