Film: Miruthan
Cast: Jayam Ravi, Lakshmi Menon, Kali Venkat,Anikha, RNR Manohar
Director: Shakti Sounder Rajan
Rating:
Imagine a scenario where a lush idyllic hill station like Ooty is turned into a deathtrap, with hundreds of blood thirsty humans swarming the place! Literally biting at the neck a la vampires, they multiply in numbers with no remote chance of leaving any survivor. A horrific imagery one would think! Miruthan depicts such a scenario. Only, neither the horror element works nor the humour. Also, one doesn’t know till the end whether it was meant to be a horror-film with an occasional dose of humour, or a spoof on the genre.
Touted as Tamil cinema’s first Zombie film, it is far from it. For, the predators are the victims of a virus infection, than the ‘living-dead’ which Zombies are supposed to be. With a lazy screenplay, juvenile execution and loads of melodrama, it’s a film not to be taken seriously.
The story opens in Ooty on a thriller-mode. Where a dog infected with some toxic chemical waste, bites a man. The latter soon turns violent, with a thirst for blood. The pouncing and biting continue, till half of Ooty is swarming with such creatures.
Each genre has its own logic. But that seems to be missing here. The time -span for the virus to take effect seems to vary from human to human.
While it is instant reaction in some, it takes hours in others. When we get to see Karthik the protagonist, he is a traffic cop and happy with his work. Karthik’s world revolved round his little sister Vidya (Anikha). The monsters forgotten for a while, we get to observe Karthik’s silent love for a doctor (Lakshmi) he had encountered. Only, she was engaged to be married to her colleague.
Incidentally, she seems to be the only one who had gauged the scenario right, when she tells Karthik that the infected were patients who needed sympathy and treatment. Though she would change her stand when
The infected ones were nearly on to her!
Karthik too seems to have a different set of standards. While he ruthlessly shoots down the infected, it’s a tolerant stand when his own sister is affected. The sibling sentiment is milked to the full here. And there is Karthik’s chivalrous act to save his lady love. The narration moves at breakneck speed in the early part.
Most of the events happen in broad daylight and in well- lit interiors. There is no attempt to create an eerie or scary ambiance. Crude and loud in its narrative style, subtlety seems to be far from the director’s mind.
The various ways in which Karthik tackles the virus-affected victims is amusing. He keeps shooting bullets on them, like he had a magic pistol in his hand. That is, when he is not tackling them with his bare hands and throwing punches and kicks.
But the most amusing of it all is where he showers the infected with water from a pipe, they running away in mortal fear. One of the better moments is the one where Karthik is driving with his team to Coimbatore, with dozens of the infected clinging to the van.
Meanwhile the doctors are into inventing an antidote, that too overnight, to counter the virus! In such a hopeless scenario, appreciable is the sincerity with which Jayam Ravi handles his role.
And the enthusiasm and easy nonchalance with which he fights the infected. The film taking just 105 minutes of viewing time has an open end, warning of a sequel. Hopefully, a more intelligently crafted one this time!