Udanpirappe is a rural drama film written and directed by Era. Saravanan and bankrolled by Jyothika and Suriya under the banner 2D Entertainment. The film has Jyothika, Sasikumar and Samuthirakani in the lead roles while Soori, Nivedhithaa Sathish, Kalaiyarasan, Vela Ramamoorthy, Deepa and others form the supporting cast. The film is streaming on Amazon Prime Video OTT.
Vairavan (Sasikumar) plays the role of Maathangi's (Jyothika) brother. They belong to a respected family in the village. Vairava believes that instant justice is the only way to solve issues. On the other hand, Samuthirakani who plays the role of Jyothika's husband, believes that no one should take law into their own hands, and waits for the legal system to provide solutions. This difference leads both of them into a cold war, and Jyothika is caught in between them. How the family reunites, and the hurdles they face form the plot of the film.
The film opens with a shot of a rabbit chasing another, while a third one also runs behind them. At the same time, we also see a kid chasing another, while a third one tries to catch up. One of them falls into a well, and another one jumps in trying to save him, and the title Udanpirappe rolls. This shot gave hope that this is going to be one of those films where the story is going to be conveyed visually rather than just dialogues, but that is not the case how the rest of the film is treated.
The film had good potential because of the interesting premise. With both the lead characters having extremely opposing ideologies, a lot could have been milked from this conflict, both in terms of humour and drama, and the film doesn't grab this golden opportunity. Instead we get a rehash of all the cliched scenes we've seen in other Tamil films earlier. Some scenes look like they're written just to build up the leads, and have no bearing on the narrative. It feels painful because you know that the film can do much better with the cast and technical team it has. The melodrama is also high which makes the scenes look artificial at some places.
Among the performances, Jyothika, Samuthirakani, Sasikumar, and Soori score well. We have seen them in similar roles before, so they look like tailor made roles. It is their acting that holds the film together, making it watchable. If the writing had elevated their roles better, the film would have created a bigger impact. The reason this film is scrutinized so much is because it is not a film that should be outrightly dismissed. The film wants itself to be taken seriously, and that must be respected.
D Imman's background score is filled with montage songs. It is well known that he is a master when it comes to rural subjects and this one is no different, despite being borderline distractive at times.
Velraj's cinematography complements the film to an extent, but it is the editing that could have been a lot better. Soori's comedy works at a lot of places, and it's good to see him shine in the serious emotional scenes as well.
The main issue with the film is the writing, the film doesn't know where it is heading towards, and is all over the place. This is Jyothika's 50th film, and she has some power packed moments here, such as the climax. But the best one is a scene where she pawns her 'thaali' to save a child in a hospital, and the scene reeks of rationality and progressiveness. The whole film tries to achieve this, the heart is at the right place, however there are less engaging scenes due to clichedness which pull the film down. If you're someone who loves family dramas so much, this will definitely work for you.