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.

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.

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.

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

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.