Iru Mugan

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

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.

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.

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.

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