Miruthan Review
Director: Shakti Soundar Rajan
Cast: Jayam Ravi, Lakshmi Menon, Kaali
Director Shakti Soundar Rajan’s Miruthan is definitely a laudable new attempt in Tamil cinema. Audiences worldwide, are attracted to zombie genre for various reasons and Miruthan is indeed an engaging thriller which moves at brisk pace, and allows you not-to-blink even for a minute especially in the first half. Though the script is riddled with logic gaps and implausibilities, it is 'Jayam’ Ravi’s superb performance and stellar screen presence that make us to root for the film! Despite qualifying for armed force, Karthik (‘Jayam ‘ Ravi) prefers to be a traffic cop in Ooty as he believes that a no-risk job will give him enough time to look after his cute little sister Vidhya (Baby Anikha). Karthik also has a short lived one side love story with Renu (Lakshmi Menon), who is a doctor. When a hazardous chemical in the nearby industry gets leaked, a dog consumes it and turns into a zombie. As the dog bites a watchman, he too becomes a zombie and eventually, the virus spreads rapidly across the town. One fine morning Karthik wakes up to find that his sister is missing and without much time to react, he gets attacked by several zombies. As Karthik searches for his sister, he gets a call about her whereabouts and he also comes to know about top doctors including his ladylove who are on a mission to find an antibody against the deadly virus. Now Karthik should carefully take all these doctors along with his sister to a nearby city so that they can find an antibody but every now and then, hordes of zombies attack them. Can Karthik pull off the impossible? Watch it on the big screen. Shakti Sounder Rajan begins the film with engrossing action sequences and innovative ideas from the word go and in fact, the first half moves like a tracer bullet. Post intermission, there are several scenes to test our patience and we begin to wonder, where the film is heading to. But towards the climax, the director gains back the momentum with a dramatic ‘Mirutha…Mirutha’ number and an adrenaline rushing action block, which in turn saves the film. Performance wise, Miruthan belongs to ‘Jayam’ Ravi as he single handedly caries the film on his broad shoulders. For a zombie thriller, the key factor is that the protagonist has to be convincing and and believable. Luckily, a good performer like Ravi has pulled it off in style. After Ravi, Baby Anikha (Yennai Arindhaal) looks cute and endearing. Kaali Venkat too scores well with his comic one liners though the same cannot be said about heroine Lakshmi Menon. She not only looks mature but is disappointing with a lacklustre performance. Probably, lack of character establishment might be another reason for us not to have any emotional connect with the leading lady! Another hero in Miruthan is Imman’s beautiful numbers and stunning background score. The rich orchestration in Mirutha Mirutha... and the pulsating Veri..Veri theme has elevated the film to a different level. However, the pick of the album is Munnal Kadhali... Overall, the probability of a zombie outbreak like this maybe slim, but Shakti Sounder Rajan has made it eerily real. Miruthan has its own small flaws but the film is indeed a watchable zombie action thriller not to be missed this week!
