Viruman Review: Fine performances in an average film

Director Muthaiah and actor Karthi join hands once again after their 2015 film Komban, and this too is set in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, specifically Madurai.

Muthaiah’s films are always centred in a Tamil village, revolving around the people there and this one is no different. As in Komban, Viruman too has a strong mother sentiment, but the story is about the relationship between a tahsildar-father Muniyandi (Prakash Raj) and his son Viruman (Karthi).

Father-son conflict

Viruman blames his father for his mother’s death by suicide and is brought up by his uncle (Raj Kiran). But the clashes between the greedy, arrogant father and revenge-seeking but good-hearted Viruman increase with time.

Viuruman has no relationship with his three brothers, thanks to his father’s hatred, but he never gives up on his family. He believes that family comes first no matter what.

The message that “love will conquer all and money can’t buy you happiness” runs through the film with Viruman proving this every step of the way.

The roles written for the women seem to be straight out of the Tamil TV serials: We find a villainous grandmother, one nice daughter-in-law, one manipulative daughter-in-law, and one young, arrogant girl who falls in love quickly with the hero for some random reason.

Old wine in an old bottle

Karthi’s role does have shades of Paruthiveeran and there’s a lot of emotional drama that is ingrained in the story. Unfortunately, the story is old-wine-in an-old-bottle and is extremely predictable.

There are plenty of fight scenes incorporated to make the hero stand out as the lone wolf, but some of them don’t seem to be justified.

The tension and conflicts that arise die out just as fast, and there’s a happy ending every time. For instance, Thaen (Aditi Shankar) is brought up to hate Viruman, but she falls in love with him the minute she hears about the good he has done.

His brothers too end up jumping to his side with no second thoughts when he does one good deed each.

விருமனை உங்கள் வீடுகளில் அனைவரும் விரும்புவார்கள் என்று நம்புகிறேன். இன்று முதல் திரையரங்குகளில்!???#Viruman @Suriya_offl @dir_muthaiya @AditiShankarofl @rajsekarpandian @thisisysr @2D_ENTPVTLTD @SonyMusicSouth pic.twitter.com/G5h4ZQW1rA

— Actor Karthi (@Karthi_Offl) August 12, 2022

Story fails to connect

The story is quite flat in that sense and doesn’t make you invest in it or connect with anyone.

There are some fine performances in this very average film.

Aditi Shankar has made a good debut with this film and her performance must be commended. She looks set to make Tamil cinema her home.

Karthi’s performance, as always, is noteworthy. Raj Kiran and Soori add value to the film. Two songs from Yuvan Shankar Raja are pretty good, but the background score is par for the course.