Virundhu Movie Review : Barring Arjun’s Style, This Wannabe Thriller Is Messed Up

The best thing about Virundhu (also released as Virunnu in Malayalam) is Arjun Sarja. The actor, at 62, looks and moves like a dream, and he has a screen presence good enough to uplift even the most senseless scenes. For example, in an unintentionally cartoonish portion, he’s made to wear a black Satanic coat resembling the raincoats we used to wear during school days, and infiltrate a cult. But he exudes a sense of style even as the material remains bemusing and as he delivers bland lines that go like “My message to today’s youth is this...” while looking straight at the audience. He’s ably supported by Nikki Galrani, who, despite playing a character whose motivations seem unclear, manages to bring about a sense of sombre intensity. However, their spirited performances are hampered by a screenplay that is a total mess, to say the least.

The suspenseful moments are all shown beforehand, while the reveal about the villain comes way too late into the narrative. There are long portions of the first half that have no bearing on the plot. None of the character motives are established well, and none of their actions seem to make sense. An auto driver leaves his family to accompany a stranger on the run. Five minutes into meeting her, he pledges to save her with his life. The screenplay’s explanation seems to be: He’s a helpful man. A character delays a crucial explanation to two people he’s hosting and instead behaves rather suspiciously with them. The screenplay’s explanation seems to be: He’s a mysterious man. Instead of organically uncovering the threads of the mystery, the film abruptly jumps from one hyper-cut scene to another, and it's very hard to get into the proceedings. None of the moments are allowed to linger, and none of the emotions are established. Fast-paced thrillers are fun, yes, but without having anything to hang on to, what are we supposed to be invested in?

Adding to this, in what is probably an attempt to make things more racy, we get a background score that is relentless, loud, and haphazard. Every second of the 125-minute runtime is underlined by deafening music, without a single breather. It becomes exhausting after a point, drowning out any chance for the audience to connect with the film's narrative.

There are some gripping moments, though. There’s an action segment in the second half that springs a surprise in the way it is set up. A sequence in the end, albeit campily staged, has good production design in an 80s-style villain's den manner. Some of the action, despite being typical one-versus-many fights, is choreographed well. And Virundhu is filmed in a saturated tone that suits the locations. But these don’t do enough to save the hastily-put-together film where there are more questions than answers. What was the point of giving Aju Varghese’s character so much screen time at the start, given that he doesn’t even appear later on? What is the reason behind giving Gireesh Neyyar so much ‘good samaritan’ backstory, other than him being the film’s producer? Did nobody in the crew point out that Kathipara Junction in Chennai is not in a hill station? Why not introduce the concepts related to Arjun’s audience-looking speech earlier on instead of abruptly introducing the themes in the climax? There is a line in the film that goes something like, “There is no other case more confusing than this." Well, there you have it.

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Vaaitha is the latest movie on the block to speak about caste disparities in the society and the way in which people from the privileged community take advantages even when they are on the wrong side of things.

 

Vaaitha is the latest movie on the block to speak about caste disparities in the society and the way in which people from the privileged community take advantages even when they are on the wrong side of things.

The film showcases the incidents that take place in the life of Appusamy and his son Pugazh, after Appusamy is hit by a car driven by a high-handed politician. As things don’t go their way even after repeated advices given by local politicians in the area, they decide to go to the court to find their victory. The film constantly reminds us of the opportunistic mindset and the caste issues that are prevalent in the society.

Mahivarman ensures that his film’s first half is busy with the establishment of the characters in the background, even though it does not happen at the right pace. There are more unnecessary scenes than required, and the film plods along until it moves into the court fully. With the introduction of Nasser’s character, the film makes us feel that it is about to turn towards a serious legal drama, but the end result is something different and it may not work with one and all.

Vaaitha has a decent amount of work put into it in the technical departments, with the cinematography and music turning out to be better than expected in few particular sequences like the climax.

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Sorgavaasal Movie Review : RJ Balaji's Sorgavaasal adds a new flavour to an old recipe.

Sorgavaasal Movie Synopsis: When a common man lands in prison due to systemic corruption, his experience reveals the harsh realities of incarceration and its role in either reforming or hardening criminals.

Sorgavaasal Movie Review: The conventional prison drama gets a reality check in debutant director Sidharth Vishwanath’s Sorgavaasal. Unlike the redemptive arcs of the genre, this film flips the script to show how the system actively works against reform, turning even the most earnest inmates into hardened souls.

Set in 1999 and inspired by a real-life prison incident, the story centers on Parthi (RJ Balaji), who runs a popular food stall in North Chennai with his mother. When his regular customer, IAS officer Shanmugam, turns up dead with chili powder from Parthi’s shop on the body, the police fabricate a case against him. Thrown into a prison run by Sunil Kumar (Sharafudheen), a calculating officer transferred from Tihar, Parthi finds himself in a world controlled by Siga (Selvaraghavan), a feared criminal who once did the dirty work. What starts as Parthi’s attempt to prove his innocence turns deadly when a devout Nigerian inmate Kendrick (Samuel Robinson) dies in solitary confinement, sparking the beginnings of a riot that exposes the rot within. The record comes out through testimonies to Officer Ismail (Nataraj), but everyone has their own spin on it, like a little game of who can tell the best story.

Sidharth keeps the narrative tight despite the prison’s claustrophobic setting. The site is starkly alive: overcrowded, under-resourced, and a breeding ground for more crime. His decision to tell the story through multiple witnesses is an interesting choice. It adds some guesswork to the plot, but is also confusing. You’re often wondering where we are in the film. It could also be shorter; perhaps 15 minutes could have been cut.

The prison dynamics ring true - from the power hierarchy among inmates to the calculated indifference of officials. When reform attempts surface, like through Kendrick’s religious influence on others, the system swoops in to crush it. These moments land harder than the predictable plot turns, mainly because they feel pulled from headlines about actual prison conditions.

RJ Balaji sheds his comic image for Parthi’s intensity, even if the character stays limited to two notes - desperation and calm. Selvaraghavan brings menace to Siga without overdoing it, while Sharafudheen is your typical scheming officer behind a polite facade. Hakkim Shah’s performance as Mani, Siga’s right-hand man, is impactful and he delivers. Karunas and Nataraj both have prominent roles and they play their part. Parthi’s mother and Saniya Iyappan get little to do beyond filling in Parthi’s backstory.

Prince Anderson’s camerawork is on point, and Christo Xavier’s backgrounds match the theme.

Sorgavaasal works as it isn’t trying to make grand statements but instead, focuses on its characters caught in a place they can’t escape. Like Parthi’s food stall, the film serves up familiar ingredients while creating its own flavor.

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Nandhan begins with a note from the director, stressing how caste discrimination is still meted out to the deplorable lengths shown in the film. It all but says, “You best believe it!” So, whenever we feel the film is intentionally milking our sympathies, we are reminded of the disclaimer and it transforms our disbelief into shock. Through this, the film largely succeeds in drawing out the intended emotion from its audience. jk

Review 

However, even as we are ready and willing to believe the film when it shows how the events unfolding on-screen are still a reality now, director Era Saravanan draws out garish unsubtle performances from his actors, which ironically acts counter-intuitive to the message of the film.

The antagonists all but twirl their moustaches and laugh maniacally like cartoon villains. With that being said, Balaji Sakthivel has understood his assignment well and has given an intentionally amped-up and thoroughly entertaining performance. On the other hand, Sasikumar, albeit with a lack of finesse, comfortably plays a simpleton ignorant of the injustice meted out to him. 

 

At the beginning of the film,  two sections of upper-caste men argue about who should become the president of the village. Nandhan, an educated man from an oppressed caste, points out the unfair nature of their selection process and demands his name to be included in the race. He is promptly killed minutes later. After our walking-talking inciting incident has served its purpose, almost every single character from the oppressed caste shown in the film is depicted through a heavily patronising lens. 

 The characters are designed as if they are oppressed because they are naive or lack the mental acuity to understand their oppression. The lack of nuance in realistically portraying the inner workings of caste oppression is apparent. The pinnacle of this ignorance is Sasikumar’s Koozh Paanai AKA Ambeth Kumar. Written as a fiercely loyal worker to his casteist employer, his character seems like a caricature of stereotypes that might exist in a casteist mind. The central criticism is not that such incidents do not happen or that such characters do not exist in real life. However, while dealing with such a sensitive issue, the director could have exercised restraint and subtlety. 

One could argue that Suruthi Periasamy, who plays Sasikumar’s wife in the film, stands as a voice of reason and common sense, promptly identifying injustice whenever she can. However, it merely comes off as a character explicitly designed to collect feminist brownie points. Advertisements Several cinematic devices are used with the express intent to wring out our emotions. From slow-motion shots of an old woman being buried, while intense rain hurriedly fills her grave with mud to long drawn out sequences of Ambeth Kumar’s family being publicly thrashed, no punches are pulled in order to overwhelm us. The most effective part of Nandhan arrives towards the end where we are shown montages of real people from oppressed castes who faced harassment when they tried to stand for elections. 

While their tears are portrayed through a magnifying glass, Nandhan fails to capture their angst, rage, and the systemic ways in which they had their hands tied, all of which are palpable in their speeches. While it might have had its heart in the right place, the film ultimately falters in truthfully capturing the plight of the oppressed with sensitivity. Nandhan had its focus trained on making us weep for such injustice. However, as the credits roll, it is hard to shake off the question: Does the film want us to empathise with the oppressed or pity them?

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‘Meiyazhagan’ movie review: Karthi and Arvind Swami shoulder this spirited bromance drama

 

‘96’ filmmaker C. Prem Kumar gives us a thoughtful character study brought to life by some brilliant performances, and it’s a treat to watch the relationship between Arvind Swami and Karthi’s characters blossom into something gorgeous

 Credit: Special Arrangement

While most filmmakers focus on the bigger aspects of their story to substantiate the so-called big-screen experience, C Prem Kumar belongs to a niche group of directors who like to concentrate on the finer, intimate moments of life. Probably because of his time spent behind the viewfinder as a cinematographer, Prem’s scenes look like animated still photographs, and just like his directorial debut 96, his sophomore outing Meiyazhagan is a series of moments in motion.

In Meiyazhagan, Prem poses several questions that you believe to have answered ages ago; for example, apart from the obvious answer, have you ever wondered why your birthplace is called your hometown? Meiyazhagan starts in 1996 (clearly not co-incidental) when a young Arunmozhi Varman a.k.a Arul is subjected to a pain seldom captured on celluloid. Cut to 2018, his cousin’s marriage forces him back to his homeland and hoping to find closure, Arul (Arvind Swami) embarks on what he expects to be a swift and hasty trip. Fate adds a tail to the full stop he long wished for and introduces him to a relative (Karthi), whose name Arul can just not recall.

 ‘'96’ will appeal to the ’90s generation, says director C Prem Kumar

Macroscopically, Meiyazhagan feels like it’s cut from the same cloth as 96; the primary story unfolds predominantly within a night, involves two individuals with a common past, the flashbacks unravel knots which the film skilfully ties... and more. But while 96 was a story of unrequited love, Meiyazhagan is an exploration of human emotions. Beyond the overarching intriguing story of a reticent urban man retracing his roots with an exuberant small-town do-gooder for company, several other aspects work in favour of the drama.

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Meiyazhagan (Tamil)

Director: C Prem Kumar

Cast: Karthi, Arvind Swami, Sri Divya, Rajkiran, Devadarshini

Runtime: 178 minutes

Storyline: A man returns to his hometown after decades only to be showered with love and affection by a relative who he can’t seem to remember

For starters, the film toys with the idea of stark extremities; right from the characteristics of the leads, to the smaller details such as the photo of Periyar next to lord Murugan adorning a wall, the stories behind their respective current houses, and so on. Prem’s brilliant setups and pay-offs also offer flourishing returns... be it the subplot involving a cycle that underlines how one’s trash is another’s treasure, to minor callbacks to a temple elephant, or an episode where the duo mistakenly wear the other person’s pair of slippers.

When Prem isn’t converting the product of pen, paper and prose to picture-perfect poetry with his lead cast, he lets his secondary characters take over the frame. Except for Arvind Swami and Karthi, the rest of the film’s cast have minor roles to play, but they are written strongly enough to warrant lengthy discussion. When these characters interact, the conversations feel organic as they are accentuated by the maker’s decision to let us linger in the moments. Be it the scene where a distant relative speaks to Arul about how her life would have been different had he married her, before brushing her hand against his shoulder as she leaves, or the other one involving Arul’s father (Jayaprakash) speaking to his relative Sokku (Rajkiran) that leaves them inconsolable, Prem proves his mettle over showcasing interpersonal relationships.

A still from ‘Meiyazhagan’ 

A still from ‘Meiyazhagan’  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

What makes Meiyazhagan work majorly is how it never succumbs to melodrama even when dealing with the rawest of emotions. Of course, there are occasional missteps, like the shot of a row of onlookers in a reception weeping to the proceedings onstage — which is actually one of the film’s best scenes — that looks out of place. But these niggles are no road-blocks; they are like sand castles in front of the mighty Cauvery that blesses the Delta region which doubles as this film’s backdrop. Speaking of ‘Ponni nadhi’, an over-enthusiastic Karthi hanging around with an Arulmozhi Varman should become a sub-genre in Tamil cinema!

 ‘Game of Thrones’ to ‘Lawrence of Arabia’: Here’s filmmaker C Prem Kumar’s watch list

It’s a treat to watch the relationship between Arvind Swami and Karthi’s characters blossom into something gorgeous. Not only do they play roles that form the unlikeliest of bonds, but it’s arguably Arvind Swami’s best performance to date while it also brings back the mirthful Karthi we enjoyed in films from his earlier days. Karthi’s nameless character and his innocent, mischievous behaviour is a constant, while Arul goes from considering his relative a menace to slowly warming up to his affectionate nature; Prem has not only come up with one of 2024’s best films but also an opportunity for two fine actors to give career-defining performances. Add to the equation some fantastic shots by Mahendiran Jayaraju and a lilting score by Govind Vasantha, with Kamal Haasan crooning the poignant ‘Yaaro Ivan Yaaro’ as the cherry on the cake.

That said, it would be understandable if Meiyazhagan doesn’t resonate as much as 96 did with the audience. Apart from having a predictable ending, the film lacks the material to warrant a 178-minute runtime. Still, it does not take away the fact that it is a thoughtful character study brought to life by some brilliant performances; for that very reason, Meiyazhagan, in every way, deserves its title.

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