Arulnithi’s choice of scripts have always been promising, giving importance to the content, and here is his next film, Iravukku Aayiram Kangal.
Iravukku Aayiram Kangal (IAK) deals with a story that revolves around a mysterious murder on a particular night and the various angles that are associated with the same. Not just this murder, but IAK is also about the game between Bharath (Arulnithi), a calm and composed cab driver, and Ganesh (Ajmal), an urban cheat, who blackmails people for money.
Arulnithi fits well into his character and shows maturity with his performance. Ajmal is back to Kollywood, after some time, with this film, but his character has a slice of cliched sketching. Being the main antagonist of the film, Ajmal's performance needed to be more impactful. Off late, Anandaraj's one-liners suiting the contemporary generation, are well received, and IAK also follows suit. He delivers, what is expected off him, but is his characterization interesting is debatable.
Mahima Nambiar and Chaya Singh have decent roles to perform, who pulls them off to an extent. The other two ladies of the film, Suja Varunee, and Vidya Pradeep do not have enough screen time to showcase their acting proficiency. .
The story kicks off from the first second of the film, and the screenplay is interestingly woven. The way, Mu.Maran uses his characters to build up the tension and chaos, is appreciable, and his writing is neat. The best part about the film is the confined screenplay, and even if the audience misses to concentrate on one scene, they might lose the flow of the film.
There are quite a lot of twists and turns in the course of the film, and some of those might please you. For a few sections of the audience, the overdo of twists in the screenplay might look force-fitted and might also lead to confusion.
There is a tinge of predictability, which could have been worked out by the makers with some more intense scenes. Most of the characters in the film have a very weak characterization and they don’t seem to terrorize the audience at all. An amount of cinematic liberty has been taken by the makers, as we don't get answers to a few questions during the go.
On the technical front, Aravinnd Singh's work stands tall, with classy visuals. The interesting and smart usage of red and yellow colours is noteworthy. San Lokesh's editing also garners attention, with the cuts being crystal clear and focussed. Sam CS' background score gives a subtle boost.
Debutant Mu.Maran could have concentrated more on building up strong characters, thereby making a more intense screenplay with an intriguing impact.