It has been nearly five years since actor Srikanth’s last entertainer Nambiar. The actor who has not had a release for a long time is back with his crime thriller Mirugaa. Actress Raai Laxmi who was last seen in Neeya 2 plays the female lead role. During the 80’s period animals had more significance and screen space than lead heroes in Tamil cinema. Those entertainers were popularly called Rama Narayanan’s films. Back then, people enjoyed seeing the wild animals aiding their favorite heroes on screen. But eventually this trend fizzled out. Fast forward to almost 40 years, in comes Srikanth’s Mirugaa to remind us of Rama Narayanan’s films. Director Parthiban must have been a huge fan on those entertainers. But will Mirugaa enjoy the success that Rama Narayanan’s films once did? To know that let us get in to the movie review.
The film is centered on Lakshmi (Raai Laxmi). Lakshmi is a multi billionaire businesswoman. She has lost her husband and lives with her child in an estate in Ooty. She has a sister, Subadhra (Vaishnavi Chandran). Considering Lakshmi’s competency their father has named Lakshmi as his heir leaving behind all the wealth to her along with the responsibility to take care of her sister. This does not evoke a good reaction in her younger sister. She concocts a plan to kill her own sister so that she could take control of all the properties. Meanwhile John aka Aravind (Srikanth), a serial killer comes around trapping wealthy single women for their money. He gets close to them and waits for the right time to murder and rob their money. While committing one such murder Subadhra video tapes him. She decides to use John to get rid of her sister. She begins to blackmail John with the video and asks him to have her sister as his next target.
John becomes close to Lakshmi in no time. When he learns that Lakshmi is way wealthier than he thought, he hatches a plan on his own to loot the money. Meanwhile, news of a man eating tiger on loose creates a tense situation in the surrounding. John helps Lakshmi and her family by setting up CCTV cameras, electric fences and cages around the property. This act of his aids him to earn Lakshmi’s trust and make her to agree to marry him. When everything seems to go well as John’s plan the man eating tiger comes in to the property. Once it enters the estate it changes the entire dynamics of John’s plan. Will John accomplish his plan successfully, where did the tiger come from, and will the tiger ruin all the plans is what makes the rest of the flick.
Director Parthiban had a decent plot line on hand to build an engaging drama. But his treatment, screenplay, and execution lack the fuel to get the motor up and running. If he had worked a little on his screenplay Mirugaa could have been a decent crime thriller. But director Parthiban is ambitious and wants his entertainer to be an extravaganza. He did show signs of it though. He sets up the stage with something interesting but does not capitalize on it. He follows them with predictable drama. After a point he does not know how to direct the flow of the flick so he drags the drama with unnecessary scenes that tests our patience. Even, his characterization lack depth and his characters suffer to produce the emotions that he wants them to produce. He wants to metaphorically compare his antagonist to the ferocious man eating tiger. But what we get on screen is a comically animated tiger seeing which it is hard not to laugh.
In order to get the attention of people story tellers try to embed different, attractive, and sometimes bizarre elements in to the plot. Director Shankar is popular for it in Tamil cinema. Every film of his has some kind of expensively mesmerizing elements. Film maker Parthiban attempts something of that sort by bringing in a tiger to crack the climax portion. But the VFX work is done so poorly that instead of adding strength to the film it has only left a negative outcome. Even without the tiger the entertainer could have been at least a mediocre drama. Budget constraints could be pointed out. But why have special elements when you know you are not going to get them better?
Actor Srikanth is back on screens after a long time. The actor has landed in a meaty role with a lot of scope to perform. But to our disappointment the actor delivers a middling performance. Actress Raai Laxmi looks trim. She struggles hard to deliver an affecting performance but ends up overacting. The rest of the cast is adequate for the flick.
On the technical front, music director Arul Dev‘s tracks do not leave any mark in us while his background score is inconsistent. Except the VFX portions cinematographer M. V. Paneer Selvam has done a decent job in covering the film. Editor Sudharshan could have been a little sharper with his cuts.
On the whole, Mirugaa is yet another reminder to film makers that having special elements with poor VFX would only ruin the entire atmosphere of the film.
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Visitor Rating: 2 Stars