Viruman is a family action drama film written and directed by Muthaiah, and produced by Suriya and Jothika under the banner 2D Entertainment. The film stars Karthi and Aditi Shankar in the lead roles, while Soori, Prakash Raj, Rajkiran, Karunaas, Saranya Ponvannan and others play crucial supporting roles. The music is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and the cinematography is handled by SK Selvakumar.
Viruman is a hot-headed youngster, who is angry at his father since he was the reason behind his mother's suicide. He threatens to kill his father in front of a court, but is stopped by his maternal uncle who raises him to be a civilised person. The drama surrounding the relationship between Viruman and his father forms the plot of the film.
The film opens with a flashback of Viruman (Karthi), chasing his father, Prakash Raj with a knife in his hand. After being stopped by the court, his uncles (played by Rajkiran and Karunaas) decide to take him into their custody and raise him well. Rajkiran tells Karunaas that he will make sure Viruman's anger on his father will reduce as time passes by, and will forgive his father for all the mistakes he did.
The problem with this flashback is that it tells you exactly what is going to happen in the climax of the film, basically serving as a huge spoiler. And this also makes all the twists in the film ineffective. Had the opening flashback scene unfolded in different parts instead of a single stretch, the film would have been a lot more engaging.
Karthi reminds us of his Paruthiveeran days with his portrayal of Viruman, and the rooted nature of the character adds so much value to the script. He is supported by a fantastic Soori whose one-liners work almost every single time. With seasoned actors like Prakash Raj, Rajkiran and Saranya Ponvannan, the film gets the casting spot on, and they also do proper justice to the roles. Aditi Shankar plays the role of Karthi's love interest, and she has put in effort to fit into the character in her debut film.
The biggest issue the film faces is the screenplay, and the way the film has been cut into two halves. The first half is at least 20 minutes too long. The emotions become deep only as the film progresses towards the interval, while taking its own time at the start. The interval block scene induces a lot of shock value, but it felt like a forced ending to the scene. The screenplay also could have been a lot better, with specific focus on the placement of flashback scenes.
On the technical side, Yuvan Shankar Raja's songs are an earworm when you listen to them separately, but it interrupts the flow of the movie. A couple of songs could have been placed better, which would have resulted in a more engaging film. The cinematography of Selvakumar captures the village well, and he also works in tandem with the stunt masters, as his visuals enhance the stunt scenes really well.
Overall, Viruman is a Muthaiah film that's strictly in Muthaiah's safe zone and doesn't want to venture into untested waters. Audiences who generally like Muthaiah's style of filmmaking will love this, especially due to the technical quality, while for other audiences this is a strict one time watch. Can be watched with your family members as well, since the violence is not gory, and even swear words used in the film are censored.