PULIVAAL MOVIE REVIEW

'Pulivaal' started making noise once the promotions kicked-in, and features a double-hero subject as its story. Vemal and Prasanna team up in a film produced by R.Radikaa Sarathkumar and Listin Stephen. G.Marimuthu, who previously did Prasanna's 'Kannum Kannum' makes a comeback as a director. The trailer promised a hodgepodge of elements such as comedy and thriller and etc. Was it worth our time ?

The two male leads play diametrically opposing characters, where Vemal is from the lower-class society, whereas Prasanna belongs to the rich and suave section. As for Vemal, its the umpteenth time he's playing such a character, so there's nothing much extraordinary with his performance. He did what he was expected to do and what he can do. But the changeover from a naive chap to a manipulating impostor is less convincing. Prasanna, scores in his role with a decent performance, especially from the sequences building up to the climax, onward. He's pretty much confident with his role, probably due to his experience, enacting something similar to what he did in 'Muran'. Among the three female leads, its Oviya who has the most impact upon the script. She has upped her ante in the glamour quotient but rarely passes muster in the performance department, though she tried her best to be confident enough in difficult sequences, such as the intimate scenes. Ananya, plays Vemal's pair and is adequate for her role and has her fair share of screen presence. Iniya, plays a less substantial role. Soori and Thambi Ramaiah's comedy portions evoke some chuckles in the beginning, but the humor starts to get tedious as the movie proceeds further, especially with Soori's SMS jokes. Prem Kumar, Swarnamalya and etc dons the peripheral characters needed here and there.

Perumal Selvam has done a neat work with the costumes department, though better work could have been focused on Oviya, since she has glamour quotient in her character. G.C Ananthan's production design sufficed the need of the script, especially with the swanky and posh bungalow of Prasanna's character, along with the office scenarios. Rajasekhar, takes care of the action choreography, and the final climax fight sequence, had very natural and realistic touch in the choreography. The tight angles of the toilet cubicles setting, has been well exploited. Kishore T.E handles the editing department, and his work was just average with his techniques. He could have trimmed the first half to some good extent, due to the excessively unwanted comedy and romance tracks. Bhojan K.Dinesh's cinematography is pretty ordinary as well, and the climax fight was the best shot scene. Better lighting in the some sequences could have elevated the mood of the scenes, further.

N.R Raghunanthan's songs are hummable but acts as mere speed breakers in the film, unfortunately. "Netrum Party" appears as a situational bit song, shot on Prasanna and Prem, in a nightclub setting. "Neelangaraiyil" was shot on Vemal and Ananya and had quite a few locations such as the Athirapally waterfalls, beaches, temples and etc, aided with minimalist props done by G.C Ananthan. "Kichu Kichu" was shot on Prasanna and Oviya, with the usual backup dancers, with some ancient temple setting, as its backdrop. "Naadu Naadu" is a situational song, which appears just before the climax and was shot on Prasanna, with montages of several supermarkets. "Vaazhkai Unnai" appears right during the end credits. The background score is scored by Gopi Sundar and he has utilized N.R Raghunanthan's tunes as the basis of his score. He has tried his best to elevate the intensity of the climax sequence, with his music.

Before dwelling on G.Marimuthu's direction, it is to be noted that 'Pulivaal' is a direct remake of Sameer Thahir's 2011 Malayalam film, 'Chaappa Kurish' starring Vineeth Sreenivasan and Fahadh Faasil. Though Sameer has been credited for the story, the original Malayalam film raised some controversies in reference to the originality of the script. Some of the scripts elements has been lifted from the 2003 Hollywood film, '21 Grams' starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro, which was written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The trailer of 'Chaappa Kurish' was almost a direct copy of '21 Grams'. Meanwhile, the script has a striking resemblance to the 2009 Korean crime thriller 'Handphone', written by Kim Mi-hyeon and directed by Kim Han-min. Coming to G.Marimuthu's handling of the film, there are quite a few flaws. The director has failed to properly establish the two male leads, which ultimately led to the audience failing to root for, neither of them. We don't sympathize nor empathize with the male leads. The story wanders into no-man's land for the most of the first half and has too much of unnecessary scenes. As mentioned earlier, the director failed to convincingly portray the changeover of characters and the driving force behind such a changeover. What could have been an intense script, turned out to be a damp squib, due to the poor direction.

'Pulivaal' - Below average due to poor handling of the script.


Ratings: 2/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL