Urumeen (2015)

Urumeen has a dash of everything- patriotism, revenge, violence, romance, fantasy and plenty of blood bath. The narration begins in the 17th century backdrop, for which debutante director Sakthivel Perumalsamy has delved into motion capture technology, Kochadaiyaan style. Some of the important leads to the plot are in this part and it would get difficult to understand the story if this portion is missed. The story then unfolds in 2015. Selva (Simhaa) is a BE graduate, who comes to Chennai from his hometown Madurai looking for a job. All is well until he gets hold of a mystical book. He starts getting mysterious calls after 12 pm giving him premonitions of the events to come, albeit in the form of numbers. (which are explained when the events occur) He soon finds a job in a call center where he meets his college crush (Umayaal) Reshmi Menon and romance blossoms. In the meantime, John Cristopher (Kalaiyarasan) a tea seller-turned-finance mafia don has been on a murder rampage along with his brother Solomon (Mahesh) and a few sidekicks. Umayaal approaches their company to sort out a financial dealing and Solomon begins troubling her. When Umayaal complains about the same to Selva, he decides to teach him a lesson. Just when he is about to get to Solomon, he is set on fire by a gang. Unable to comprehend what's happening around him, he approaches Charlie (a psychiatrist of sorts) and asks if the book would have any relevance to what's happening around him. When Solomon's murderer reveals the reason of killing to Selva, he gets into revenge mode. The story again goes into a flashback mode and this time around, the plot is set in 1939 in a tea estate where a patriotic rebel Chezhian (Bobby) and Krishnan (Kalaiyarasan) are good friends. When Krishnan is promised a tea estate in Kozhikode in exchange of his friend Chezian, he helps the British trap him. And we again travel back to the current era for the final revenge. The problem with Urumeen is that the director has tried to infuse too many elements into one film. While two flashbacks are already a lot to take in, the second story takes its own sweet time to unfold. After a long-ish fight sequence, we realize that we are still left with the final revenge in the current era. And considering how ruthless John is portrayed in the film, it's disheartening to see him go down without a fight toward the end. Though the plot is an interesting one, the narration falters as vital links to the reincarnations haven't been explained well and leaves you confused. Bobby Simhaa pulls off his role as a confused individual well, but it's hard to see him as a hero (playing for the first time) looking for a cold-blooded revenge. Kalaiyarasan, has done justice to his character as a villain we would love to hate. Reshmi Menon has nothing much to do in the plot overloaded with violence and bloodbath. However, kudos to Sakthivel Perumalsamy for approaching a complex story in his maiden venture.