IDHAYAM MURALI Review - The leading ladies, music and visuals make it a watchable rom-com!
Ashwin Ram
Premise: Atharvaa loves Preity Mukundhan in his school days and Kayadu Lohan during his college times. But being an introvert, he never got to propose to them. How it impacts him and what happens when they both re-enters his life forms the remaining story.
Writing/ Direction: The intent is to present a feel-good flick and the chosen technique to pull us into the subject is nostalgia drive, instead of taking us back to our sweet memories, the callback moments only manage to remind us of other movies. The writing is basic and so is Aakash Baskaran’s direction, however the shortcomings don’t majorly affect the film as it is balanced to an extent by the ensemble star-cast and an experienced technical crew. The fun factor is spread across, acting as the saviour of the flow. Even the middling romantic portions in the first half is saved by the witty counters uttered by the hero’s friends. There are moments that we see with a little smile on our faces, but nothing leaps as a properly developed worthy scene. The character arcs are also extremely basic, we get that Atharvaa is an introvert, but the layers are completely missing. The star-stubbed choice is both the boon and bane for the movie, big names are casted even for small roles, resulting in some sort of a disappointment when we realize their importance is just minimal. Has shades of the recently released ‘With Love’, not just the Trichy storyworld factor, in terms of plot-points as well. Kayadu Lohar’s emotional scene and Preity Mukhundhan’s likeable stretches placed in the USA add momentum, leading to a lengthy yet an entertaining climax. Fahad Faasil was given a dud role for most part, but gets a crackling ending with a couple of theatre moments. The screenplay does have moments to cherish, but flipside it is sluggish on the whole, mainly the two fight scenes could have been avoided as they did not have any coherence in the flow. Sadly, there are plenty of lip sync issues, also the dialogues are misfire. It feels nice to see certain parts of the story taking place in a foreign country and the team has actually travelled to America for filming, a very rare occurrence in Tamil cinema these days.
Performances: Atharvaa shines in a subtle role where he doesn’t have to be loud and melodramatic, the beard look suits him so well, making him the right fit to be the male lead of this romantic-comedy. Preity Mukhundhan and Kayadu Lohar steal the show with their presence, they both have performed well too and have almost equal importance in the script. Natty has a mild emotional trace on the family side, while Paridhabangal Sudhakar entertains with his quirky comedies. Niharika has at least gotten something to do, although her love failure track feels like an extension of the slice-of-life angle, the others from the supporting cast had barely anything to do. Dravid, Darshan and Angelin were all dummies. Thaman on-screen after Boys was a total disappointment, failing to create that on-screen persona. Jonita Gandhi appears in a neat cameo character, but her performance is underwhelming. The climax hides the flaws in Fahad Faasil’s role and makes his presence an apt one. Chinni Jayanth and Anju Kurian are wasted, while Malavika Mohanan did seem to have a potential, but she was not even allowed to convey her thoughts clearly in the end.
Technicalities: Except for the terrace song named Kattazhagi, Thaman S has produced a satisfying album that is the major driving force of the film. His hard work in background music is also very efficient, holding the situations together. The visuals look so pleasing and such a great value addition in making the tone of the movie beautiful, the exquisite foreign portions have been captured so well. Editing is a mixed bag, while the transitions are smooth, there are a bunch of places where they could have easily trimmed and got down the 165 minutes duration, which is any day overtime for the genre.
Verdict: A light-hearted romantic entertainer that banks on its likeable cast, enjoyable friendship moments and pleasing technical aspects. While the writing could have packed a stronger emotional punch, the performances of Preity Mukhundhan and Kayadu Lohar, along with Thaman's music and the vibrant visuals, keep the film engaging and make it a pleasant watch.
IDHAYAM MURALI - The leading ladies, music and visuals make it a watchable rom-com!
Rating: 3/5