Pulimurugan

Story: Pulimurugan is revered in his hamlet for hunting and killing tigers that venture into human territory and attack people. However, an errand for his family takes him beyond the forest, leaving his village vulnerable to man-eaters and him fending off unfamiliar foes. How Murugan deals with these challenges form the plot.


Review: Director Vysakh’s 'Pulimurugan' has been in the making for over a year and the audience expectation has fluctuated during the period, with its continuous pushing of release dates for re-shoots and post production work. So much that the anticipation has partly fizzled out and the filmmaker could have easily buckled under all that pressure of it being one of Mohanlal’s biggest films. However, that’s definitely not the case.

The movie’s protagonist 'Pulimurugan', is a proverbial saviour for his villagers as he kills man-eaters that saunter into their territory. That plotline makes for several hunting sequences with tigers. The movie’s strength though is a fleshed out story and pacy screenplay that takes its protagonist out of the wild and puts him in the world of ruthless men – a scenario where the hunter becomes the prey. This leaves his village vulnerable to the predators and him fending off unfamiliar foes. How Murugan and his family try and overcome these challenges make the movie.

The film starts out introducing the audience to a pre-teen Murugan avenging the death of his father, who was killed by a tiger. The first 15 minutes are gripping with the chase between the man-eater and the boy clearly setting the mood for a stylish film. However, that’s not all that its director and scriptwriter Udaykrishna deliver. The movie has a good enough story to keep the audience engaged while providing ample thrills through Peter Hein-choreographed fantastic action sequences.

In the first half, Mohanlal though looks old to play the part, and his energy and screen presence is found lacking. However, by the second half, his character is fleshed out and the protagonist truly delivers. The movie doesn’t have any punch dialogues but has enough charismatic scenes to have the fans raving about. Lal and Suraj Venjaramoodu play able sidekicks to the superstar. Kamalinee Mukherjee as Pulimurugan’s wife Myna and Jagapati Babu as Daddy Girija too do justice to their characters.

The movie could have done away with a character or two. Makarand Deshpande and Kishore have roles that move the story forward but at times they come off as an afterthought.

The action department deserves applause for making the scenes believable and stylish. It could have been easy to make the action go over the top, especially when the protagonist is a wild hunter outwits a 400 kg tiger with ease. The editing is crisp. Gopi Sundar is in top form with a brilliant accompaniment of rousing theme music that adds to the movie’s mass elements.

Though the plot is nothing new, it’s well presented with the editing department making the 161-minute runtime a breeze.