Iru Mugan

Vikram like Kamal Hassan has always been more inclined to experimenting with roles rather than take up plain every day stuff that every other star is doing. IRU MUGAN is just one of those experiments and yes he has pulled it off with ease.

The movie opens with a 71-year-old creating a havoc in the Indian Embassy in Malaysia with super human strength and finally dropping down dead.

RAW is pulled into the scene and a Rookie Agent Aayushi (Nithya Menon) discovers a "love tattoo" on the dead man. RAW chief Malik (Nasir) remembers that the tattoo is a symbol of a dreaded terrorist Love (Vikram) in whose pursuit RAW lost one of its best agents Meera (Nayantara) when she was shot dead and Meera's Husband Akhilan (Vikram again) another RAW agent had a nervous breakdown and had to be discharged from the unit.

Since Akhilan was the only one alive who has seen Love, Malik recruits him unofficially and sends him to Malaysia to investigate along with Aayushi. Aayushi discovers that the dead man happens to be inhaling a drug called Speed, the same one which Adolf Hitler was rumored to have given his Nazi troops to fight the war with super human strength. The drug was known to increase the Adrenalin rush in the body.

Following some leads Akhilan and Aayushi finally come face to face with Love only to discover that all the while Love had been hiding a secret……..

Vikram is fantastic as LOVE, the body language, the expressions and the one liners all make this character as one of the best villains Indian films have come up with. Vikram as Akhilan is just OK, he does the same thing which is expected of a south Indian Hero, it is LOVE that steals the show here.

Nayantara as Meera is as hot as anyone can get, she has different shades to her role. Like Vikram's LOVE, she too has an evil alter- ego ROSY. She is equally good as the bad girl.

Nithya Menon is just OK as the rookie agent, but its her voice modulation for the character which saves the day for her. She just uses the right tone when interrogating people or when making a point. It shows how important it is for an actor/actress to dub their own lines.

Back ground score by Harris Jayaraj is excellent and the song "HALENA" needs a special mention.

RD Rajashekhar's cinematography captures the well choreographed chase sequences and the flashy sets magnificently. Anand Shankar's screenplay and Direction are top notch and he really proves he has what it takes to come up with an excellent sci- fi/espionage thriller.

If they had edited Thambi Ramaih's character completely, the movie would have been more crisper and tight. The character is down right silly and only helps in slowing the plot.

I would recommend it to anyone who loves flashy thrillers with good action and chase sequences and out of the world plot.

Chiyaan as Akilan: designed like Hollywood intelligent agent As love: simply excellent Nayanthara: Looks pretty, good performance Nithya Menon: small role, but remains in mind, Thambi Ramaiyah: Not well used Songs: Boring background score: climax portion is good, other than that,

Cinematography: The beauty of Malaysia, Kashmir and other places come to the fore with RD Rajasekar's visuals

Screenplay: 1st half just good, 2nd half okay plus: villain role, interval twist, relation of script to history minus: screenplay, songs

Well crafted action sequences, stylishly shot visuals, decent music and neat performances mark Iru Mugan. However, there is something amiss in the film to make you feel that it was such a well made, taut, commercial potboiler.

Synopsis – The film is all about how the undercover agent Akhilan defeat a pharmaceutical mad-scientist named... "Love" who is ready to market his dangerous drug in and around the world. The drug which can transform an ordinary man to supermen for 5 minutes. (The director should be inspired from Hollywood film called "Limitless" & many more - No offence though)

Iru mugan started with an amazing top view of Malaysia, however simply failed to become an impressive thriller. Anand Shanker's first film "Arima Nambi" was quite impressive as it was a well- cooked light meal to digest for. When it boils down to Iru Mughan, it's just a high calorie junk food which just fills the stomach without supplying any minerals. The director cum writer Anand Shankar have had an excellent plot in hand, however the dragging script formation & laziness in showing the perfection in tailoring the scenes (Except Action) are clearly visible. The forced comic scenes by a Tamil Cop in Malaysia sits uneasily with the seriousness of Hero's mission. Why suddenly a flash back scene & a song while chasing the truck to locate the main villain? The script is however flavored with twist and turns which was highly predictable for me. Anand should come up with challenging / engaging thriller if in case he gets date from an acclaimed actor.

Without Chiyan Vikram & Nayanthara the movie could have been a crap, Anand should be thankful for their honest performance. Hats off to Vikram for his classic performance as both Akilan & Love. Nayanthara was looking beautiful in all frames irrespective of quality of the movie. Thampi Ramayah's performance was decent, however exaggerated comic element was irrelevant for such a film. Nithya Menen becoming quite Typo character as she continues to do supporting actor along with the lead heroin. The rest of the cast were decent enough to play their own roles.

When it comes to the technical side, Ace Cinematographer R D Rajashekar really deserves appreciation for brilliant delivery of frames and some moving close up shots. The top view of Malaysia, Kashmir & songs were excellently captured. However, bit disappointed with Bhuvan's editing department as I guess the songs were misplaced and the flashback scene didn't sink well with the story narration. And it affected the film's flaw drastically. The choreography team did well & innovative in all songs except "Helena". Hariss Jayraj strikes with his impact-full BGM & songs right from the opening credits.

Bottom Line –

The only reward if you spend time & money in theatre by watching Iru Mughan would be the music by Haris Jayraj & tremendous performance by Chiyan Vikram.

I don't mind well made movies inspired from other language movies but this movie is very poorly executed. Too many instances from Hollywood movies and they didn't know how to stitch them into a seamless one. The result looks so forced and silly. The very intro scene of Vikram was ripped from both Rambo and Sherlock Holmes. All it manages to achieve is boosting Vikram's ego and nothing more. What's with the scientist who just spills the beans even without asking much about what he has been upto ??

After a very long time, I stopped watching a Tamil movie half way through as I was not able to bear wasting my time on such a mess.

Watched iru mugan with som expectation. Did it satisfy?. Good things about the movie first. It had great visuals, locations and good performance from Vikram if not his best performance. Apart from Vikram every one was made to look dumb including Thambi Ramaiah, Karunakaran, Female leads. With a very nice concept they could have made a edge of the seat thriller, but instead the movie is so predictable which makes it boring at many times. Also the movie looks very lengthy. I thought movie was over one hour before the movie actually came to an end. With this concept there at least the action should have been innovative, but that falls flat.

We can watch it only if we are a fan of Vikram.