The most successful hero of last year Jayam Ravi coming together with director Shakthi Soundarajan who had a good outing with his ‘Naigal Jaakirathai’ creates huge expectations and to top it ‘Miruthan’ is touted as Tamil cinema’s first zombie movie. A lot of hard work has been put in by the team and whether it pays them dividends remain to be seen.
The film opens with a lot of promise as we are shown a dog turning into a ferocious beast after getting infected by toxic wastes which then bites a man who becomes a zombie and starts a chain of human infections. Jayam Ravi is Karthick a traffic policeman in Ooty who shies away from any danger as he has to take care of a younger sister in her early teens. He is in love with a doctor Lakshmi Menon but never proposes as all their meetings end up putting him in a bad light and to complicate things Lakshmi is already engaged to be married. As events take a worse turn it is left for Ravi to take Lakshmi and a group of doctors to Coimbatore where they hope to find a cure for the zombie virus epidemic and the rest of the story is about whether they succeed or not.
One has to say that after the powerful roles in ‘Thani Oruvan’ and ‘Bhooloham’ this is sort of a demotion for Jayam Ravi, as the script demands him to just be a one man army against thousands of zombies and is only required to constantly fire his guns throughout the movie. It is only when his sister gets infected the talented star gets a chance to emote and gives a charged up performance, especially when he shows his love for Lakshmi Menon and when he starts losing his human side. Lakshmi Menon has very little to do except being a part of the proceedings and is unconvincing when she voices her dissent on shooting off the zombies at the most inappropriate situations. Kaali Venkat manages to evoke a few laughs with his ‘Just miss’ line while Sriman irritates with his antics. R.N.R. Manohar as the politician is okay and the actor playing the chief doctor who hides his infection is good. Amit Bhargav is also in the cast as Lakshmi’s fiancé and baby Anaika as Ravi’s sister.
As usual D.Imman has given one hummable number ‘Munnal Kadhali’ and the theme song ‘Veri’ and the climax love song also sets the mood well for the zombie takeover but the background score is jarring. Facing the challenge of having to deal with 100 extras in almost every scene cinematographer S. Venkatesh has done a tremendous job in capturing the ever moving images. Editor K.J Venkat Ramanan although is good overall could have put the scissors on many scenes in the first half. Stunt master Ganesh deserves a pat on his back, especially for the climax where he is the backbone.
Shakthi Soundarrajan who borrows heavily from Hollywood, has this time lifted ‘Night of the Living Dead’ but has completely thrown logic out of the window. It is strange that at this modern times television and social media is completely absent in such a disaster situation and the hero learns of the outbreak through the Thina Thanthi headlines. How a traffic constable gets access to unlimited guns and bullets is anybody’s guess. The scenes between Jayam Ravi and his sister in the first half test the patience of the viewers and the repeated assault of the zombies is tedious except in the climax. Having said that the director and his team have put in a lot of hard work in the execution of the film, but could have concentrated on writing a script with a soul which ‘Miruthan’ sadly lacks.
Verdict : This zombie flick infects you with boredom for most parts, but makes amends in the last half hour thanks to Jayam Ravi’s riveting performance in that portion.
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