Iru Mugan

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.

Iru Mugan (2016): Vikram is one of the most versatile actors of Indian Film Industry.I have a huge respect for his hard work and he is kinda my inspiration.Though he excels in the every role he did,there is no commercial success for him after Anniyan (2005). Even with this bad status,he still prefers to do versatile roles which proves his talent.Iru Mugan,dubbed as Inkokkadu in Telugu released today amidst huge expectations.How is it???

Plot: Akhilan (Vikram) is an officer in RAW. The secret agent left the organization as his wife Meera (Nayanathara) was killed by a transgender pharmaceutical mafia don Love (Vikram) four years ago. Akhilan destroys the empire of Love and kills him. Four years later, a group of RAW agents notice that the network of Love has resurfaced. Now, Akhilan is called again for work. Akhilan along with trainee RAW agent Aarushi (Nithya Menon) heads to Malaysia to find out about Love. What happens next??

Plus Points:

1)Performances: There is no doubt that Vikram once again proved his stamina and versatility.In the role of Love Vikram gave terrific performance.He perfectly showed the mannerisms of a transgender without going overboard.From his walking style as transgender to the wicked smile of Love,Vikram's show all the way.Nayanthara looked pretty.Nithya Menen has a limited role.

2)Plot: Iru Mugan has a decent plot of stopping a terrorist act but a transgender being the villain made this plot unique.

3)Interval episode: Interval scene is awesome with high octane action scenes which are shot brilliantly.A twist also comes at that point which comes as unexpected(not for me..)

4)Second half: Though its not perfect,its very good when compared to dull first half.It has racy action and thrilling scenes which features Love.

5)BGM: Harris Jayraj gave brilliant theme for Iru Mugan.Though it is used repeatedly in the movie,it helped a lot in few scenes.

Minus Points:

1)First half: First half of Iru Mugan moves at a very slow pace without any surprises.Though they showed scenes of undercover investigation scenes,there is no thrill or interesting matter.Comedy done by Thambi Ramayya is irritating

2)Lot of flaws: Iru Mugan has lot of loopholes which are easy to find.In few scenes there is absolutely no logic.

3)Songs: Except Helena,others are boring and even comes at wrong times which disturbs the flow of movie.

So,Iru Mugan is another proof for Vikram's talent but a dull first half and inconsistency in screenplay makes this a One-Time Watch movie.

My rating 6.5/10

Vikram has proved in every film that he can do anything in any way for just a movie. He proved that again in IruMugan. In any ways you can't blame him for any of his movies as he does his part properly and in fact excellently. The story is of course a mix of plenty of Hollywood movies. Of course we can watch those Hollywood kind of movies in tamil , it's obviously acceptable than the usual Vijay ajith kind of movies in tamil. But what anand shankar could cleared out is the logic loopholes which are plenty in the movie. And he could have written better dialogues as it never impresses you in any part of the movie. The scenes were fast paced in the first half even though there were songs kept in wrong places. But the second half actually turned out boring in many places. The love character was played brilliantly by vikram but the dialogues there could have been better as it seemed extremely normal. The bgm was extremely good in many places. Harris has proved that he is the king of melody in the movie again. Overall this movie is decent one time entertainer which could have been really better if it avoided the uncertain moments in it.

Imagine if a man destroys all liquor shops but keeps few liquor bottles with him for him to drink,What will u call him? Imagine if a man destroys all brothels but keeps few girls as his mistresses,What will you call him? These two examples are I felt after watching iru mugan. I was about to enjoy and finally like some vikram movie after anniyan but like deiva thirumagal it's ending also ruins everything. Bad luck vikram.

When a project has Chiyaan Vikram in its cast list, the perception around it takes on a different color. And director Anand Shankar's second directorial Iru Mugan is no exception either. To top it, we have two Vikrams who are vying for our attention in the aptly titled film.

A trailer is something that gives the audience a sneak peek of what to expect and also kindle the curiosity levels to make them buy the tickets and go to the theatre. Going by that, the trailer gave an inkling of how Iru Mugan is going to be.

Director Anand Shankar has attempted to give an action oriented espionage thriller with some scientific innovations thrown in. There are high flung chemical formulae mouthed by the characters with references to Hitler too. Looks like the team had done their research on it fine.

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.

What can one say about Vikram? He gives his life and soul to any character that he essays and in Iru Mugan too, it is his show all the way. As the RAW officer Akilan, he brings out the ruthlessness and sharpness of an intelligence officer and as Love, he rocks it big time. He blends in the masculinity and also the effeminate nature of the character pretty well. It sure is a tightrope walking and kudos to the director for not making a mockery of such characters. But, why is this character this way? Was it just to bring in quirkiness?

Nayanthara and Nithya Menen have their roles clearly etched out to bring in the color to the proceedings. Interesting job descriptions such as ethical hacker and RAW case officer sound cool. Out of the supporting characters, Thambi Ramaiah has more screen time and the role is like any other one that he has been portraying in many of his films. It is a little unconvincing to see cop characters continuing to be projected outright silly on screen.

The beauty of Malaysia, Kashmir and other places come to the fore with RD Rajasekar's visuals. Bhuvan Srinivasan's edits appear decent. Under Harris Jayaraj's musical Halena song stays on. Although the songs are richly choreographed and shot, they are all unnecessary protractions especially when the proceedings are at a different gear. Costumes of Nayanthara are outright chic and uber cool.

In an investigative action thriller such as this, scenes must proceed at a rapid pace. But there are moments when we leave the happenings on screen and wander around. The team should have focused more on the story and screenplay, which could have resulted in a better product. The intended twists are well guessable by the current audience. There are a few logical questions which look unanswered in the story.

To sum it all, Iru Mugan has its pluses in the form of technical prowess and performances but the core story and the treatment let it down.

Verdict: Vikram in full form, technically strong too. But script and logic could have been handled better