Niram Marum Ulagil Movie Review

Anthology films have been a thing of the past in Tamil cinema but here comes another in the form of Niram Maarum Ulagil – a film that brings together four stories on motherly relationships which all go through different forms of struggle.

We have four cheerleaders (or say, tear leaders as the film is an emotional rollercoaster aimed to making you cry) – Natty has a situation where he is trying to make amends to his past, where his mother was a sex worker, Rio’s story is about him funding cancer treatment for his mother. There’s also Bharathiraja’s story which is emotionally the highest peak point, as he plays the father ill treated by his sons. The final story which could be the best of the lot, is about Sandy playing an auto driver who runs into a unique character.

All the four stories in the film show promise and are interestingly written, but the way in which they are executed onscreen makes it too melodramatic than the subtle emotions that are needed for such kind of a film. It is clearly evident that the makers wanted to keep the focus on the film being a proper tear jerker.

There’s also the problem of Niram Maarum Ulagil being overlong, and that also works against the film with all the stories being only thick enough to be narrated in a span of under 30 minutes.

Niram Maarum Ulagil ultimately turns out to be an over emotional film that keeps the ball rolling with its storylines hailing parenthood.

Verdict: A passable yet noble set of stories on parenthood and aging.