Review Overview
Performances
Screenplay and Direction
Technical Aspects and BGM
An accessible effort from Shakti Rajan!
Miruthan is a decently made thriller within the confines of the Zombie genre. Though the remarkably straightforward narrative style leaves you jaded, Miruthan is, in all respects, an accessible effort from the director.
Cast: Jayam Ravi, Lakshmi Menon, Kaali Venkat, Amit Bhargav, Baby Anikha & others
Cinematography: S Venkatesh
Music: Imman
Editing: KJ Venkatraman
PRO: Riaz Ahmed
Written & Directed by: Shakti Soundar Rajan
Produced by: Global Infotainment
Run Time: 01:48:00
Release Date: 19-02-2016
Miruthan is a decently made thriller within the confines of the Zombie genre, which is totally new to Tamil cinema. Director Shakti Rajan has taken a safe, conventional plot to narrate his story with touches of romance and sentiments laced into the screenplay in order to suit the sensibilities of Tamil audiences. But, the amount of effort that has gone into the localization of story-telling is quite underwhelming considering the insincere and effusive demonstrations of relationships, be it between Ravi and Lakshmi Menon or Ravi and Baby Anikha, who plays his sister (the apparent age difference between the two doesn’t help much).
Set in the backdrop of scenic Ooty, Miruthan revolves around a zombie outbreak in the city following the leakage of toxic waste from a tin. With the impending onslaught of zombies, how Karthik (Jayam Ravi) rescues a group of doctors and helps them reach Coimbatore General Hospital to invent an antidote for the virus forms the rest of the story.
With the exception of first 15 minutes, the film moves at a breakneck speed till the interval point and keeps us on the edge of our seats. But, the frenetic pace and short run-time (106 minutes) have come at a huge cost. The character establishment goes for a toss, which eventually makes it difficult to invest in the emotions displayed on screen. The logic-defying scenes, like how Ravi is equipped with unlimited guns to spring a full-blown attack everytime, may make you scratch your head.
Although the film manages to keep audiences on tenterhooks in a fair number of scenes, the mundaneness in the screenplay, especially in the second half, sticks out like a sore thumb. The comedy sequences in the first few minutes don’t exactly provide any comic relief, so to speak. Also, the intensely shot romance scenes towards the fag end of the third-act are schmaltzy enough to put up with.
Jayam Ravi, surely, is in the midst of a purple patch in his career. He has excelled in his portrayal as a doting brother, responsible traffic cop and bloodthirsty zombie. His dynamic facial expressions in the ‘Mirutha Mirutha’ song are easily one of the standout factors in the film. He perfectly fits the bill as a cop and is believable when he takes on a barrage of zombies at erratic intervals.
Director Shakti Rajan deserves to be applauded for opening doors to the zombie genre in Tamil cinema despite Miruthan ending up as an arguably not-so-great outing. Though the remarkably straightforward narrative style leaves you jaded, Miruthan is, in all respects, an accessible effort from the director. With Miruthan being the first interesting spin in this genre in Tamil, now I only wish that others deliver more inventive zombie films in future instead of dishing out lazy ones like how it happened with the now done to death ‘horror-comedy’ genre.
The background score composed by D.Imman is occasionally jarring and head-splitting. The make-up and visual effects team warrant mention for coming up with an adequately convincing work within a shoestring budget.
Miruthan Movie Review Rating: 2.75/5
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Written by Surendhar MK