Lovelorn and hopeless Romantic or an introverted Playboy? - Thoughts on Idhayam Murali

A column by Bharath Vijayakumar

 Romcoms are kind of rare in Tamil cinema these days. We did have Heartin (my review) a couple of weeks back. Last year, I can think of Dhanush’s directorial NEEK (Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam) and Krishnakumar Ramakumar’s Oho Enthan Baby. Apart from certain issues in the acting, I did quite like NEEK (I know I am in the minority here) and I kind of remember that Oho Enthan Baby (my review) was quite an easy watch as well. Of these, NEEK is the most well-known because of Dhanush, and of course, GVP’s chartbuster song, Golden Sparrow. I am assuming that there might have been other lesser-known romcoms that probably fell off the radar. Now coming back to the point. The big budget, easy on the eye romcom, with ‘conventionally good looking’ leads dancing to catchy music filmed on exotic locales is the kind of film that I am talking about. That is definitely a little rare in Tamil cinema these days, and Idhayam Murali is exactly that kind of cinema.

The most common issue in these ‘easy on the eye’ films is that they can so easily be plastic. It is like you may feel the pleasant chill of the hill station or the vibrant mood of a busy street on a foreign land where the lead pair is dancing and yet feel nothing about the feelings the lead pair have for each other. And that mostly becomes the undoing of these films. So how does Idhayam Murali fare?

Soon after the present-day introduction in the US, Idhayam Murali goes back to 90s in India (Trichy and the year 1998 to be precise). In the hero’s words, we are introduced to a bunch of 80’s and 90’s kids. And we are given a brief about this generation of kids. Kids who played on the streets with friends and not with their phones. Kids who used VHS and then VCD. Again, in the hero's words, kids who thought babies were made when two people from the opposite gender kissed each other. For those who can relate, there is an immediate connect. The film doesn’t necessarily romanticize or glorify this particular period, nor does it go on and on about the specifics of this timeline. Just a brief that is kept simple and is nicely done. And then we have the school portions that are quite fun. Not rib-tickling comedy but some lightweight fun, thanks to Sudhakar in particular. So that fear about the film feeling plastic is gone, at least for now.

The first half of Idhayam Murali is quite a breeze. It keeps it simple. With small surprises like the one involving Preity Mukundhan, the film remains adequately engaging. It does start feeling a little long towards the interval but not so much that it is a deal breaker. It is in the second half that a certain fatigue creeps up at times. This is primarily because the film is going around in circles. To be fair, this is partly intentional and the annoyance we feel is also expressed comically through Fahadh Faasil. The hero’s character is such and the plot itself is about him going around in circles. But it seems to go on for quite a while and with the jokes having reduced and the fact that there is an action sequence thrust in out of nowhere, we now start feeling a bit restless. It suddenly feels like you are in the 2000s, where a film like Kushi, would need a stunt sequence to establish the machoness of the hero, in what is a simple love story. To be fair, the film does treat these portions with a certain unseriousness and almost like a comedy, but you still have the hero posing after sending the henchmen flying. The Achilles heel of the film is there is a lack of clarity about the actual core of the film. I suppose the makers would say that this is a film about a hero who isn’t able to confess his love to the girl/girls that he loves. The first half of the film does feel so. But in the second half what we have on screen is a hero who isn’t sure about who he loves. And we the audience are not sure if the hero is actually even in love. Because we do not see much difference in the way he interacts with the different girls in the second half. It is like he is with someone in one scene and with someone else in the next scene and we do not see any difference. We have seen movies where the hero is unable to move on. But here he is actually moving on in every other scene to a different girl. I am not judging the hero. It is fine as long as that is what the movie is actually conveying. But everyone around him is mocking his inability to confess his love but I am actually unsure if he is just enjoying being with everyone without having to choose one. Is the hero actually ‘Idhayam’ Murali or an undercover ‘Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai’ Vishal? Jokes apart, I did like the fact that the hero is unsure, but hoped the film conveyed it more convincingly. This would have avoided the monotonous feeling in the second half that lasts for a while before finishing on a high when the film goes back to just being fun. (Also, cannot resist but think how the audience do not seem to have any problem when the hero is confused about his love and whom to choose. It is just fun! But think of the comments in social media about Kural from Dude when she was genuinely confused about her love)