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.

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.

Iru Mugan starts with a strong opening scene which establishes the main concept dealt in the film but right after the scene, the film feels too draggy till the interval. We are supposed to get along the story but instead, we are watching Vikram and Nithya Menen's action sequences and Thambi Ramaiah's comedy scenes which are making us disconnect from the initial story. It's only after the interval that the film starts to be much more interesting with only Vikram's terrific screen presence. Well, as Akilan the protagonist, Vikram's role doesn't seem to be heroic nor interesting because his backstory is totally wasted by a simple illogic factor. As Love the antagonist, Vikram shines on screen. He shows his versatility as an actor by portraying the role perfectly. His mannerisms, his attitude, and his performance are a delight for the audience. His role adds so much intensity to the film and helps it be engaging further. Except for Vikram, Iru Mugan fails to offer strong characters. On the musical front, Harris Jayaraj made a decent album and a pulsating background score. Visually Iru Mugan looks stylish. There are so many cinematic shots that help the film to be a high-quality venture. Coming back to Anand Shankar, he has done a decent job in this action entertainer and the scientific concept that he deals with in the film adds a certain uniqueness. While handling such a concept, Anand Shankar fails to look up to the logic because we witness so many illogical scenes that unfortunately need scientific researches. There are only a few surprising plot points that create a high peak effect in the film. Overall, Iru Mugan can be watched for Iru Vikram's screen presence.

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

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.