Irugapatru review: A romantic drama that presents the female perspective on today’s relationships

Director Yuvaraj Dhayalan’s Irugapatru (Hold Firm) is a reasonably engaging romantic drama that underscores the factors that could inadvertently strain the relationship between couples desiring to be together.

While the film’s intentions are noble and the message it looks to send out is ideal, a couple of questions crop up in one’s mind while we watch it — is the film rooted in realism and are relationships in today’s day and age as simplistic and noble as they are made out to be.

Through the lives of three couples, who form the backbone of the plot, the movie highlights some common mistakes people commit.

Synopsis

Couple one — Mitra (Shraddha Srinath) and Manohar (Vikram Prabhu) — is what most people would call an ideal couple.

Mitra is a psychologist who counsels couples looking to save their relationships for a fee and her husband for free.

Rangesh (Vidarth) and Pavithra (Abarnathi) are more of a couple you witness in this day and age.

Rangesh is an IT professional whose unreasonable deadlines at the office drive him to frustration. Adding to it is the pressure of paying EMIs for a home he never wanted.

Unable to single out the factors that cause him frustration, he looks to take out his anger on his wife, who has put on weight after delivering a child.

Arjun (Sri) and Divya (Saniya Iyappan) are newly married, after falling in love. Arjun is a journalist. Divya, an IT professional, wants to do full-time work to reclaim her self-esteem.

Through these couples, Yuvaraj Dhayalan brings forth some significant points that are bound to cause friction in a relationship.

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Addresses problems in relationships

One of the points that Irugapatru highlights is the lack of communication or miscommunication between couples. Communication is not what a person says at face value but understanding what s/he means by making such a statement. The film conveys the same.

A sequence in the movie has Mitra saying, “When your husband says he wants a divorce, he does not mean he wants a divorce but that he wants to be left alone.”

This may appear simplistic and straightforward on screen, but doing something similar in real life could cause misunderstanding — especially if individuals can’t efficiently read the mindset of their partners.

Irugapatru might have been directed by Yuvaraj Dhayalan — a man — but it presents the female perspective on relationships. So, it is no surprise that the film attempts to blame men for all the problems in today’s relationships.

Consider this for a minute: the problems that two couples face are caused by the men. In the case of the third couple, the woman is so perfect that she does not give even a chance for a problem to arise between her spouse and her!

Irugapatru makes us believe that women are just as perfect as they are and that men need to work on themselves to become more compatible.

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Fantastic performances

The movie has some wonderful performances coming in from its lead cast. All three pairs of lead artistes do a fantastic job.

Vikram Prabhu as Manohar is dignity personified. Majestic, calm, composed and in command, he reminds you of how men ideally should be.

Shraddha Srinath, as Mitra who doles out advice to everyone, fits into the character to a T and does a commendable job.

Vidarth, as Rangesh, comes up with a neat, convincing performance, while Abarnathi lives the character of his wife Pavithra.

A special word of appreciation for Abarnathi who seems to have undergone a phenomenal physical transformation for the film.

Sri, as Arjun, delivers a fantastic performance and equally impressive is Sania Iyappan who plays his wife Divya.

Justin Prabhakaran’s music is simply fantastic and ideal for a romantic drama.

Final take

In all, Irugapatru, if you can ignore some of the free gyan that it gives out, comes across as a reasonable entertainer.

(Views expressed here are personal.)