Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir Movie Review

Films on Sri Lanka and its refugees have come out quite a lot in Tamil cinema, and we have classics such as Kannathil Muthamittal going all the way until the underrated ones like Kuppi. In the same lineup comes Venkata Krishna Roghanth’s YOYK, a film that brings about the struggles of a Sri Lankan refugee trying to find an identity of his own.

The entire film is based on the journey of Punithan (Vijay Sethupathi), a man who is sent off to safer grounds but later changes paths and travels in search of an identity, while also paying attention to his never-ending love for music. The film is built with incidents, anecdotes, and monologues that try to bring out the struggles of such refugees in every angle possible. While the first half introduces us to the characters and also brings in a needless romantic angle, the second half is the better of the two and it does throw the spotlight on the refugees, their wants and needs, and the tough situations they have to go through. The film also has a thriller angle where Vijay Sethupathi’s character comes face-to-face with that of Magizh Thirumeni, with a reasoning behind it.

Roghanth does have a strong plot in hand but his writing and narrative are both inconsistent and fail to pack the punch that a story like this needs. While there are some emotional moments that manage to tug our heartstrings and pull in our attention, the film beats the intensity with some generic writing on the other hand that dilutes the actual effect that it needs to create.

However, it is worth lauding the weight that the Sri Lankan refugee struggle has been given in the film, and it works through Vijay Sethupathi’s earnest performance that is matured throughout, and also excellent in the scenes where he has to recite long dialogues.

Apart from Vijay Sethupathi, the other performances in the film pass muster. However, it is nice to see late actor Vivek in a good role with his own dubbing.

Nivas Prasanna’s music is a great addition to the film and the composer backs it up with some emotional cues in the background, with a special mention to the climax sequence. The visual and editing treatment of the film is functional.

On the whole, Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir is a laudable yet incomplete presentation of the lives of refugees. It is Vijay Sethupathi who hands in a very good performance and makes this worth a watch.  Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir Movie Review by Siddarth Srinivas

Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir Movie Review Rating: 3/5