Irandam Ulagam

Selvaraghavan has his own style for depicting romance on the screen. He manages to bring a kind of passion in relationships which make his love stories interesting. His latest take on romance Irandam Ulagam is sadly a huge let down and the main reason I could find was the unreal characters and shallow relationships. I saw an update of someone in Facebook that the visuals of Ramleela resulted in color blindness; well he might change his view if he watches this movie.

The story here has two love stories. One happening on earth and the other one is happening on another world. The other world people doesn’t know the value of romance and because of that there is a kind of dryness in the society and environment. The story here basically focuses on the arrival of an external guy (from earth) to this alien world and how he influences a couple there in making them realize about their love and also telling them what romance is all about.

Frankly what annoyed me the most was the lack of clarity in defining the fantasy world. Too much of color, civilizations similar to that of earth and even the usual emotions of the characters just doesn’t take you to an alien world. The typical Selvaraghavan song where the hero is drunk as he lost his love is even there in this alien world! A few houses had perfect aluminum roofing I guess. In a story where the deep love of someone inspires someone else, you need at least the first love story to be sensible and touching. With awkward characters and unreal situations, director fails to establish a heart touching love story and thus the second half preaches about romance looks so lame.

In terms of making, Selvaraghavan is comfortable in conveying these awkward moments in romance with a pinch of humor by adding some realistic reactions in them. But in the case of Irandam Ulagam there is very little scope for adding this kind of humor. A larger part of the narration is on the over dramatic side. Many set pieces in the screenplay lost its relevance in the end. The screenplay is uneven as it can’t give depth and feel to both love stories. Dialogs occasionally scored. Cinematography was satisfactory. Edits and BGM were okay. I wasn’t that impressed with the music. The VFX disappointed me. Adding stars and colors on the sky with European villages in the backdrop wasn’t a great idea to show a different world. The man faced creatures created with graphics looked deadly but their dynamics were bizarre. The fight sequences with and without VFX were terrible as we could see the baddies falling down even without getting a solid hit.

Arya once again gets a half goofy character. Can’t say that he did a great job, but it was satisfactory.  Liked the presence of Anushka. She was able to portray the two characters with required differences. There are a lot of foreign actors who found it hard to express emotions using their face.

Overall, Irandam Ulagam from Selvaraghavan disappointed me. My rating is 1.5/5 for this Holi celebration movie. If making the audience feel alienated was the purpose of the movie, I think the director has achieved it.