The following article is by Trijai Nerthi and it is not IndiaGlitz's take towards anyone or anything

Vidiyum Munn: Silent nights, darkest hour and horrific shades of grey

Vidiyum Munn is one of the best executed thrillers in recent times. This film is a gripping thriller that will keep you enthralled till the end. It deals with a sensitive topic by bringing to light various aspects without making it messy. It throws light on child trafficking and sex slavery by treading on necessary lines and avoiding unbearable massacre. Hats off to director Balaji.K.Kumar for doing justice to the story and refraining from adding elements that are believed to be mere crowd pullers in mainstream cinema. This well crafted thriller will definitely send shivers down your spine and linger in your head for quite a while

The story revolves around four men who are after one woman and a girl for three different reasons. Rekha (Pooja Umashankar) is a call girl who is on the run with a young girl Nandhini (Malavika Manikuttan). Chasing after her are Singaram (Amarendran), Lankan (John Vijay), Chinnaiah (Vinoth Kishan) and Durai Singham. Singaram (Rekha’s pimp) is threatened to find Rekha and Nandhini and hand them over in a day failing which he will die. Lankan ventures out to help Singaram but he has secret plans of his own. Chinnaiah is frustrated and he is determined to find these women and he sets to kill anyone who keeps that from happening. Durai Singham sends his gangsters on a search to find Nandhini and kill Rekha if she becomes a hurdle. Why are these men after one woman and a girl? Do they have the same notion? Do they finally capture these two? Who makes it out of the chase? Watch this griping thriller to find out.

All the actors have done a brilliant job. Characterizations were perfect and each actor fit into their role very well. Pooja Umashankar is back with a bang and if you loved her acting in Naan Kadavul, you will be really impressed with her in this film. Malavika Manikuttan amazes us with her flawless acting she is naïve in a few scenes but in scenes where her innocence is destroyed she brings out emotions so naturally and delivers her dialogues with perfect timing and ease. Vinoth Kishan sends chills done our spine just through his eyes; he has very few dialogues which add to his intimidating and fearful image in the film. John Vijay’s comical yet disturbing portrayal of Lankan worked well for the film. These actors definitely have to be applauded for their performances simply for their consistency and boldness which is vital considering the amount of close up shots taken in the film.

Balaji.K.Kumar is the best part of the film. He keeps the screenplay racy till the end and his narration is simply the best. The story has a restricted narration in a three act structured treatment. Till the very end we know only as much as the characters in the film know which contributes to the suspense and he introduces a sense of harmony which then disturbed and finally ends in a resolution. Balaji’s strength lies in his narratives and the characterizations. The twists and turns are unpredictable; an air of mystery is always kept alive. A lot of silence is used the right way in this film, the silence is not empty but the silences seem to tell us a lot of stories themselves. This film does not have a conventional mainstream formula which is definitely a big relief.

Cinematography is by Sivakumar Vijayan. He has given us visuals that compliment the story and he has avoided unnecessary distractions. He makes us feel as though we are seeing the film through an objective eye. A lot of yellow, black and blue is used in the film to add to the suspense and give us an atmosphere of eerie storytelling. A lot of scenes in the film have a streetlight style of lighting and in such cases maintain a uniform colour temperature becomes difficult but he has wholly maintained that uniformity. He has maintained a perfect balance of canted and objective camera angles. He has also taken a lot of close up shots to intensify horrific emotions.

Music for the film has been composed by Girishh Gopalakrishnan. Sound effects form the core of a thriller and Girishh has done a great job with his edge of the seat sound effects. The sounds of a storm were maintained in most of the scenes and these atmospheric sounds contributed to the suspense and mystery. The two music tracks and BGM were equally intense and complimenting.

Overall this film showcases the ugly side of Human beings, the coldness that takes over the warmth, the innocence of not knowing enough to differentiate between a good touch and a bad one and finally the monsters that lie inside us. The silent nights conceal darkest shadows spun around make believe beauty that is hidden beneath layers of misery. It is a constant battle between the dominating bad and the barely existent good. The film gets you so involved that you wish you could reach out to some of these characters and give them a well deserved slap.

Definitely one of the best thrillers in the recent times! For the love of cinema, please do not miss out on this one.