Iraivi - Visitor Review

He is arguably one of the brightest among the new breed of directors. Karthik Subburaj is more like a cult figure to the younger generation. Perhaps the limelight on him had to make way for the other equally intelligent Pa Ranjith who has the demigod Rajinikanth on his side now. KS made a strong announcement with a low budget flick “Pizza” that was consumed heartily by all. His second movie “Jigardhandha” too seemed to have the right flavour to find favour and now with “Iraivi” he looks to consolidate himself as a writer/director in the top bracket of Tamil Cinema. There is this penchant of his to name his movies from the menu card of a restaurant, but symbolic in his movies, now with “Iraivi” he sounds more poetic yet strong.

KS embarks on a very novel route to explain the silent strength of being a woman, but just that the novel becomes heavy and dreary as we flip the pages. As his convention he starts of lightly taking a long time to characterize the actors in the movie. All have grey edges and the loosely based screenplay can be a bit daunting at times.  It is also felt that the script focuses more on the futility of the characters than the content itself.  The writer must have felt that he would make amends towards the end of the script; but then the story ends up like a routine melodrama. KS at the beginning of the movie delivers an ode to the established film makers of emotions KB and Manirathnam, sadly the script lacks the maturity of either of them.

The performance of the lead actors and the others are nothing to gloat about. All go about their job professionally. Vijay Sethupathi is type cast, SJ Suryah supposedly the surprise package is quite decent and Bobby Simha with his somewhat strange accent pushes through. Radha Ravi is sober and the “Iraivis” of the movie are all weeping idols.

Technically there are no complaints, cinematography is cool and so is the decent editing in a muddled script as this. Santhosh Narayanan needs no encomiums though there is a particular template he seems to be playing from.

"Iraivi" is a queer style to showcase how women are better than men, but sadly comes out irregular. KS tries hard and with a “Pizza” and “Jigardhandha” on the table you expected an “Iraivi” sitting across but sadly she turns out to be wet, cold and crying.

IRAIVI – WEEPY !!

Rating- 2.75/5