Virumbigiraen

Had been wanting to watch this movie for a long long time, since it is chronologically the first movie in which one of my favorite heroines, Sneha, has acted. I'd heard that her performance in this movie is a very good debut performance and perhaps that has led her to some great performances in the times that came.

What's New?

The plot is pretty good, and deals with a valid concern of caste and sect differences in Indian villages. This is something that I have not seen extensively in tamil movies.

The way that humanity, irrespective of caste, creed, sex, color, age or just about anything else, unites to save lives and their homes is impressive. However, the way that this is brought about is really dumb and destructive.

Noticeable

Sneha has delivered a very daring performance for her debut effort. She looks very young and slim and fits her role perfectly. Her romantic scenes are sometimes sizzling and we have not seen such a sizzle from her in her later movies, except in Chinna, coming up. She has done very well in her quadruple role, as a sister, daughter, friend and lover. Some of the scenes are pretty dumb, but she is not responsible for that. There is also too much crying at times, but her exchanges with Nassar give her a great thrust into Kollywood. The latter has delivered a professional performance that is expected from a star of his caliber.

Prashanth is a disappointment. He barely acts in this movie, which requires a mature performance. All his expressions and sequences seem really stupid for the role. Sneha has clearly overshadowed him. But this must not be new for Prashanth, who we have seen got outsmarted by Roja in Chembaruthi in his very first movie, and later by Ash in Jeans, even though there were two of him and now in Virumbugiren.

The story has not been done justice to. There is a cinematographical failure and the direction seems powerless with the likes of Prashanth at the lead. The disaster is completed with the songs not being up to the mark, with the exception of "Nejamma...", which was very melodious. The location in a village setting was pretty good for the story. I am sure Susi Ganesan will come up with better movies. We saw traces of this in 5-star, which was a nicely shot movie.

Verdict

Nothing much to this movie. If you can stand Prashanth, the story is pretty good and brings to light, an important issue in Indian villages. You can watch this for Susi and Sneha. Other than that, there is little hope that you'll enjoy this one. Monday, June 20, 2005 at 10:19 AM