Under The Spotlight: Iru Mugan

Iru Mugan... The trailer alone was enough to give us all goosebumps.. Vikram is a man who knows no end in pushing himself to the limit. The trailer revealed that there will be two Vikram in it, one being a bearded looking Vikram who seems to be a cop in an undercover operation with Nithyaa Menon being is cop partner and Nayanthara being his love interest. It also shows another Vikram which looks to be a transgender criminal and thus why the film is called Iru Mugan ( 2 Faces)

Story Review

The film takes off right away with an attack on the Indian Embassy in Malaysia. Just that this didn't look right a regular terrorist because a 70 year old man manage to take down a bunch of police force single handily. That's right a 70 year old man takes down cops and he does it with just a puff of an Asthma inhaler.

After reviewing the CCTV footage, they identified that the mastermind behind this attack is an individual named "Love" which was believed to be dead 4 years ago thanks to one of their agent named Akilan portrayed by Vikram.

The film moves forward with Akilan having glimpse of his past and how he killed Love before and is unsure if Love is really alive or is someone else using Love's network to organised this terrorist attack. Nevertheless he is determined to bring the mastermind down. Akilan is shown to be a man with no remorse and emotions and he is only focused in bring this mastermind down.

A series of event leads to Akilan discovering who Love really is and a major plot twist spices up the film. From this point the film moves forward with Akilan trying to bring Love and his grand plan down and a Vikram vs Vikram climax battle  ensures the end of the film

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Director Review

Anand Shankar

Would you believe that this is just Anand Shankar's second film only. Huge credit to him for coming up with a proper entertainer. It is a very bold move by such a new director to come up with a script revolving a transgender criminal. Not many would have dared to so and huge credit to him.

I enjoyed how he tried to connect his fictional story to actual historical events and exploring the darker side of Malaysia like movie piracy, prostitution, corruption and fake medications.

The strength of the film is the natural rawness which is portrayed by Akilan and the pace of the film from the moment go. The film was intense and it was nice to see a proper cop vs criminal movie unlike those normal commercial entertainers. 

The downside of the film for me comes down to three points

• Censorship
• Timing of the songs
• Pace change in the second half

The film was brilliant until when they started cutting things off the film which really disrupted the flow of the film. The worse part was when the build up to the hospital scene. I had no idea who where they searching or why are they even going to the hospital. Took me a couple of scenes later to connect with the film again. This I wouldn't blame the director for it.

For me it was very clear that the film was written with songs into it. Personally I felt that the director just tried to fit in the songs into the film because all Tamil film's needs songs. The film would have been stronger without any songs in it except the last one.

The intensity of the first half was brilliant. Got me glued to the screen. Although I anticipated some of the twist of the film but the director did well to keep it wrapped. But something just seems to have happened in the second half and the pace seemed to have drop and lost it's grip on the audience 

Rating: 3.0/5.0  

The Cast

Vikram

Is there any role that this guy can't do. Vikram never fails to amaze with every film he does, he loves to push himself to the limit. This man is the symbol of effort and dedication. His portrayal of the character Love will go on and gain him applause for sure. I think he portrayal as a transgender was more convincing than an actual transgender. The way he changes his body language, the way he speaks and his mannerism. Magical stuff.

But what impressed me more was his role of Akilan in the darker shades.

I enjoyed how he portrayed a character with no remorse and emotions. He was all out to capture Love and it was so convincing. He held the character well and went all out to ensure that he gave two very very distinguished performance.

 Rating: 4.5/5.0

Nayanthara & Nithya Menon

Again it was an easy selection to choose Nayanthara for the role of Meera. I don't know anyone else better to pull off an action girl role. She was amazing in Billa and she was amazing here again in Irumugam.

Her character had a lot of potential to develop into many direction but I was dissapointed the director did not utilize it and choose to focus more on the Vikram vs Vikram portion

On the other hand, I felt Nithya Menon's character could have been given to a new face. Not that she is not good, in fact it was the other way round. She is an amazing actress and this character was a waste of her talent. I don't know why she decided to take it up. She has bags of potential and this film did not come anywhere close to fulfill her potential.

The rating won't be too high as there wasn't  much of a significant contribution to the film by the actress .

 Rating: 3.2/5.0

The Music

Harris Jeyaraj

I truly enjoyed "Helena" the most. It was peppy and lovely and the songs gets you going whenever you hear it. Meanwhile "Irumugam Settai" was a fast number I enjoyed. The balance two songs were also good but I felt other than "Irumugam Settai" none of the 3 songs had a place in the film. Good songs but wrong film I would say

Another credit to Harris would be the BGM. Right place right time and it keeps you connected to the film. Also note that whenever a character uses "Speed" and when they move there will be those little cyborg machine sound. I think that's another fantastic touch by Harris

 Rating: 3.3/5.0

Final Verdict: Irumugam, a refreshing take on Special Agents vs Masterminds but needs a little more polishing

Final Rating: 3.4/5.0