Of Goddesses and Demons - Iraivi(2016) Review

I simply cannot put Iraivi into a genre , All I can think of after i finished watching Karthik Subburaj's third film is how vividly and with how much subtleness a social message could be conveyed in a modern day cinema. Iravi is quite different in many ways, It starts with the three female leads and their introduction and then pans to the male leads (A clear view from the director telling us that it is a film about women). Even Though the film is about two and half hours it is quite engaging and  even with many sidetracks it all makes perfect sense at the end.

Storyline- One Liner(A bit of a spoiler!)

Iravi deals with the lives of Michael( Vijay Sethupathy), Arul ( S.J Suriya),Radharavi and Jagan(Bobby Simha)  or rather it should be said as the lives of Ponni(Anjali), Kamalini Mukherjee and Vadivukarasi their respective pair, the film follows their life from the beginning of their relationships and how they move on at the end.

From the beginning, Karthick Subburaj's intention is very clear, to show the dark side of Men and he clearly portrays the place we stand in the current"Modern" society. At the first half of the film , it seems a bit one sided or more focusing on the storyline of the film, But the way he shows the Dark sides of Michael, jagan and Arul is quite brilliant. It's quite difficult to judge who is Protagonist and  Antagonist in this film, It is just the question of "relative badness" but after the end it all doesn't matter.

Some brilliant acting by S J Suriya, we could see how he could pull of Vaali and Kushi, he is truly the artist portrayed in the film. Vijay Sethupathi is quite the Demon in the film, the man of instincts, one character based on whose actions the plot twists and turns, his character actually transforms in the middle of the film but also remains the same(watch till the end!), in short  Iraivi is one meaty role for the actor. Right from his rugged looks in the entire film, the character which he portrays is  the portrayal of "Man" which karthick Subburaj needed to show.

It is  quite a variety of Demons - the emotional( Arul) one and the manly and violent one(Michael)  nice combo which becomes the backbone of the film

Now for the female leads, The story as such that the female leads don't get that much scope for performance, but is quite  apt performances by Anjali, Kamalinee Mukherjee and Pooja Devariya and Vadivukarasee of course. I think more than the performance it's what they stand thats needs to be seen. For example Vadivukarasee who speaks only in the introduction and  is bedridden for the entire time in the film and Kamalinee who beliefs in  Arul even after he keeps on disappointing her. these female leads all represent different sets of woman in the modern day society and Karthik Subburaj nails in their portrayal.

At the end of the Credits, I came to know that the film is slightly based on "Jannal Malar" by Sujatha. I can see how the film could have been mislead  if it were to be directed by someone else. It is easy to take film with social message. It takes a strong lead to beat the bad guy and tell the punch dialog in the end. That is the formula we all know of. But not in this film

Near the end of the film S J Suriya tells that how things could have ended differently and that how men and women are different. No matter what good fortunes come, it is the demon inside a man which makes it all go wrong at the end. That's the gist of the film. Karthik Subburaj's film have always been with an unusal genre and unexpected endings likewise Iraivi is quite different and typical karthik Subburaj film at the same time but this time he adds a nice message which is not conveyed but well understood at the end. This will be one of the bests of 2016.

Star Cast:

Vijay Sethupathi, S J Suriya, Radharavi, Bobby Simha, Karunakaran, Anjali, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Pooja Devariya, Vadivukarasee