Atharvaa Murali makes a comeback with this wonderfully titled film, after the demise of his wonderful father, actor Murali. "Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal" has been marketed as a trendy, urbane and slick thriller with good music and cinematography. Debutant Elred Kumar who helms the director's chair is surprisingly the producer behind RS Infotainment, and its a rarity to see a producer turning into a director. Added to that, Amala Paul has been glamorized up for this film and the chemistry between the leading pair is the selling point of the film.
Atharvaa as the troubled IT employee made his mark as a decent debutant in "Baana Kaathadi" continues his fine form in this film as well. He dances well and shows good agility in stunt sequences, and showed more improvement from his first film. With the guidance of more prolific directors, this guy has very good potential to be a powerful performer. Kudos to him for carrying this whole film on his shoulders, though its only his second outing. Amala Paul was cool and breezy throughout the film and so far, this has been her most glamorous outing yet in Tamizh cinema with trendy and chic costumes, a straight contrast to her "Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi" looks. Besides that, it was a change with Chinmayi doing the dubbing for her this time, which actually suits the character which she plays. With two releases at the same time, she is the current hot babe of Tamizh cinema. Jayaprakash was cool and trendy as usual, with this flawless dialogue delivery and voice modulations. Nassar was decent as usual in an limited role and Anupama Kumar and Yashika did what was expected from them. The biggest disappointment though was Santhanam. His comedy track was totally unnecessary to the screenplay and most of his jokes didn't really take off well.
Since Elred Kumar himself has produced this film, it is obvious that he has spent lavishly and its evident through the fantastic output of the film. The DI work by Gemini Labs was well done in 6K and shows very good picture quality. Kiran's art direction was trendy with the posh apartment and office of IT suites, all depicted in a very stylish and contemporary style. But not only that, the artwork in village sequences too were very natural and minimal. Antony L.Ruben's editing was neat, but he could have trimmed the film a bit and made the screenplay racier with the arrangements of scenes. Rajasekar's stunts incorporated some new style of fighting techniques like Parkour and Beacon but he could have avoided the use of the ropes as some stunt shots look fake. Deepali Noor's costumes made the characters look chic, casual and trendy, especially for Amala Paul who comes in various designer dresses throughout the film. The biggest asset to the film though, is cinematographer Shakthi. His framing and visuals were fantastic with such cool and breezy shots, giving the whole film a very calm feeling. The usage of blue tone nearly throughout the film, maintains the cool and aesthetic feel. This man, has a great future in cinema and will be one to lookout for. Kudos to Shakthi!
GV Prakash's music was cool and trendy as well. "Mazhai Pozhiyum" was well captured in the Grand Canyons and follows a road travel theme throughout. One of the rare occasions, where cinematographer Shakthi adopts a different tone color in the film where the whole song was given a warm feeling, with light orange tinge. "O Sunandha" was done in montages and follows the lead pair throughout Bengaluru with well placed angles in camera. "Oru Murai" is the best of the lot and though the picturization was hyped up as it was done in the world's largest gift shop, Bonanza Shop in the Las Vegas strip, it didn't really live up to the hype it generated. But it was still well shot, with cool choreography by Brindha and shot in music video style. Not to forget, the wonderful lyrics of Thamarai. "Sokku Podi" is the usual set-song and the sets were done keeping in mind with the cool-blue theme of the film and Prasanna's choreography was decent. "Yaar Aval Yaaro" was also done in a music video style with untried Gothic theme and the graphic works by Pixon was decent. "Kangal Neeyae" is another flashback montage song, aesthetically shot and also incorporates a warmer color tone. The disappointing fact is that, the songs are a drawback to the film as it slows down the screenplay and was more of a roadblock in the story. GV Prakash should avoid lifting tracks from other sources as one piece of his BGM work was directly inspired from Zack Hemsey's "Mind Heist" track which was incidentally used as the music piece in the initially trailer of the mind-bending Christopher Nolan's classic "Inception"! His other haunting piece which comes throughout the film, was well scored though.
The problem with Elred Kumar's film is that, it has a weak script though the basic storyline is an interesting one. Though the film was made to look like a classy one, once in a while it incorporates unnecessary commercial aspects like comedies, flashbacks, sentiments and etc. Initially, the film was touted to be a romantic thriller but then the romance quotient was not properly emphasized leaving the audience with only the thrills to savor. The script does have its good moments, especially with the scenes just before interval, which really keeps the audience guessing of what is happening. But the thrill and momentum was not sustained at all, and sadly few questions went unanswered and loopholes were evident here and there in the screen which cannot be excused and as mentioned earlier, songs were just pure roadblocks. A couple of dialogues were crisp and witty but they are far in between in the screenplay. A few different perceptions where thrown into the screenplay which looks forced.
Elred Kumar titled the film spot on beautifully, enhanced the film with good technicians and was lavish in spending but let us down with a loophole-filled script.
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
