Viruman Review: Karthi’s film is generic and bland

When Karthi and Muthaiya reunited after the success of ‘Komban’, expectations were high. ‘Viruman’ has a lot of Komban-ness in it. The rural setting, aesthetics, village belle heroine, lots of family drama.. However, it still falls short of being engaging and entertaining.

‘Viruman’ is a family drama with the rivalry between an authoritarian father and his youngest son being the centre of action. Prakash Raj plays the dad Muniyandi, a Tahsildar who is respected by the locals. But the man is outright evil and is unabashedly tyrannical. His word will always be the final in the family and he decides for the others. Viruman, the fourth son, hates his father as he was the reason for being his mother’s death. In fact, the film opens with a young Viruman chasing his father with a dagger in hand to kill him. When the court intervenes, he chooses not to go with his dad. His uncle (Raj Kiran) takes care of him. The story is about how Viruman saves his brothers from Muniyandi’s clutches and lets him realise his mistakes.

It is a good enough plot for a compelling family drama but the film suffers from a lot of forumalic elements. Right from the action to the romance to the comedy, everything is generic. Amidst all the blandness is a terrific Prakash Raj. His performance reminds one of his glorious Ghilli days. He is the villain, but he is the entertainer. His dialogues, actions are all supposed to elicit hatred but the actor delivers it in such a way that it’s funny.

Karthi is adequate and does his part well. He basically repeats what he did in ‘Paruthiveeran’ and ‘Komban’. ‘Viruman’ also marks the acting debut of filmmaker Shankar’s daughter Aditi. To be fair, she gets a decent role and there’s a good 5 minutes devoted just for her to prove her dancing skills. It’s more like a showreel for her. There’s a lot of unintended humour in this film like the strange interval block. It’s a tense moment that ends up being hilarious.

In a nutshell, ‘Viruman’ is a largely forgettable affair with only Prakash Raj’s performance lingering on.