A few weeks ago, we had Mercury , which revolved around the happenings of a single night. This week’s Iravukku Aayiram Kangal also talks about the incidents in a night – most of which involve a murder – and the backstories that led to it.
The film opens in slow motion: Arulnithi (Bharath) is taken to the E4 Abhiramapuram police station for questioning. You’d be tempted to think — at that moment — that this is for a grave offense that he’s committed. You’ll learn much later on that it is of minor nature, but his involvement in another crime committed that night is of a larger scale.
- Genre: Thriller
- Cast: Arulnithi, Mahima, Ajmal
- Storyline: A call taxi driver gets involved in a chain of events that involves a murder
Bharath is a call taxi driver (and a suave one at that) who is in love with Suseela (Mahima), a nurse. We have little idea about how they fell in love — and director Mu Maran isn’t interested into going into that. He does let composer Sam CS indulge in a song, but is quick to get into the story. We understand why in a bit: Maran’s story unfolds like the big, different branches of a banyan tree, into several subplots that are linked with the main plot.
And so, we have Vasanth (John Vijay) and Roopala (Chaya Singh) in a troubled marriage. Vasanth’s father is ailing, and it is Suseela who is his home nurse. One day, after work, Suseela gets into a cab and is assaulted by the driver, and is in time saved by Ganesh (Ajmal) who starts falling for her.
Or so we think. Ajmal comes into his own with his performance that has shades of grey, while Arulnithi quietly goes about his job with ease. The actors score, but it’s the director’s handling of various characters in different situations that deserves praise.
Having said that, Mu Maran does make it extremely difficult for the audience to keep track of the happenings in the film. There are several subplots — the one involving Anandharaj is the best — that keep springing. While they’re all linked with the main murder, the over-indulgence in the number of characters does bog down the film considerably. Iravukku Aayiram Kangal needs a high level of concentration from the audience, the kind they’d probably have last had during their board exams.
