Movie: Urumeen
Direction: Sakthivel Perumalsamy
Cast: Bobby Simha, Reshmi Menon, Kalaiyarasan
Music: Achu Rajamani
Cinematographer: Ravindranath Guru
Editor: San Lokesh
Genre: Drama
Rating: ∗∗½
What is it about: It’s a fantasy revenge thriller-drama, which has a multilayer plot of re-incarnation of the protagonist Selvaa (Bobby Simha) who gets betrayed in his previous lives by his friend/brother John Christopher (Kalaiyarasan), leads to an unfinished business over centuries with an lingering urge for a bitter revenge, this forms the crux of the story directed by the debutante Sakthivel Perumalsamy.
Why it’s disappointing: The movie had a great potential which gets lost in narration with clamouring the screenplay. The crux of the story being revenge doesn’t establish a solid alibi which can hold the movie strong. With that being said, there were quite a few blunders which could have been saved with cautious execution. For instance the flashback which was featured post interval should have got established little earlier in the film, which could have explained the audience in a clear voice, because that sequence kind of seemed rushed in the second half.
The movie involves 3 live births of the Simha, the current sequence fails to show in detail how he learns the nuances of the strange book he discovers, they do show few instances like meeting an expert in regards to this, but that doesn’t make a strong case. The heroine Reshmi Menon was once again used as a cameo rather in a full-fledged role.
This would be Bobby Simha’s first stand-alone movie donning the lead role, and it kind of did not register well. The character which appears post interval in the flashback was a great one, but the current one in the story doesn’t gel with those characteristics.
The cinematography seemed quite jittered in few places which involved drone shots, the music was average none of the songs quite stays in your mind.
Finally the climax which gets quite extended and makes you restless, because the hero and the villain doesn’t get a stand-off even till the last moment and it was designed in Final Destination method which got little tiring as it took its sweet time to end.
What to watch out for: Urumeen had a great opening sequence which incorporated an open source animation software to narrate the history of the central character. The initial part of the movie had a good pace and gets you interested in anticipation for the following, but unfortunately gets caught in to its own web. The story was well derived, which could have done wonders if was well placed.
Bobby Simha, proves that he’s a versatile actor with “Urumeen”, what he loses in one character, makes it up for the character which appears in the flashback, which gave him a good appeal.
Kalaiyarasan did a great job, he is one of the under-appreciated actor in recent times, he’s been dishing out great performances one after the other. Both the characters played by him were well performed. Kalai has a good screen presence and can carry the grey shades really well.
The background score by Achu was good, what he lost in songs was made up with the BG.
Verdict: Sakthivel Perumalsamy is quite a thinker who had a great story to tell with a style of its own, unfortunately it gets wound up due to less engaging screenplay making Urumeen an average thriller. Worth a watch for few technical aspects and performances by the central cast.
