Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam Movie images

May 08th saturday

Amazing Starting Simbudevan in Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam Movie images

Movie
Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam
Director
Chimbu Deven
Producer
AGS Entertainment
Music
G V Prakash
Cast
Larencce, Lakshmi Rai, Padmapriya, Sandhya, Nassar, Manorama

By Moviebuzz

Director Chimbudevan has confessed in many of his interviews that from his early days as school boy he was fond of cowboy movies and reading comics and novels based on them. Finally his wish of directing a cowboy film has come true with Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam (IKMS)

The film was said to be a homage to cowboy films. In particularly the director pays a tribute to Karnan’s Tamil cowboy adventure Ganga, made 37 years back with Jayashankar in the lead. His idea was to make a film in the same genre by mixing comedy with action, laced with one-liners, slapstick humor, sentiments, and songs.

Sadly it backfires as the Wild West meeting Kollywood with all its formulas just does not work. At times you get the feeling whether it is a spoof on cowboy films, as there is no proper story. The first half of the film drags like a lame horse that is running nowhere, while the second half the story moves faster, with some interesting episodes like the treasure hunt and the climax.

The story in a nutshell follows the typical cowboy film formula popularised by legends like actor John Wayne and director Sergio Leone’s “spaghetti westerns”- guns, girls, horses, exotic wild outdoors and the final shoot out between the good guys and the bad guys.

Like any other cowboy film IKMS starts with the hero Singasaram (Lawrence) about to be hanged by the Sheriff of Sholaypuram (in the court you will find Amitabh Bachchan’s portrait instead of Gandhi). He is saved at the last minute by a gang ( Mouli, Ilavarasu, Ramesh Kanna, Vyapuri) from Jayashankarpuram (a tribute to actor Jayashankar, hero of the last cowboy film ‘Ganga’ made in the 70’s) who wants him to do them a favour.

They feel he is a spitting image of Murattu Singam (Lawrence), “the fastest gun in the west”, who was their protector from the evil one eyed Kizhakkukattai (Nassar), who lives in the fortress like Irumbu Kottai known as USA Puram. How Singam a small time conman becomes a brave cowboy and takes on the evil empire of Kizhakkukatti and also finds the missing treasure is what the film is about.

A Red Indian angle (MS Bhaskar and Sandhya as his daughter), two girls for glam and songs Padmapriya and Lakshmi Rai are also thrown in along with bad guys and comedians that go to make cowboy films. The film ends with the hero vanquishing the bad guys in a shoot out, and riding into the sunset with the heroine.

The highlights are Muthuraj’s sets and Sai’s costumes, which gives it the feel of a cowboy film. Alagappan’s camera work especially the outdoors gives it a wide canvass look, the crisp editing of Raja Mohammed makes the film racy in the second half. GV Prakash’s background score is awesome, though none of the songs stay in your mind.

Lawrence is a superb choreographer and a very good human being, but as an actor he just does not make the grade. He lacks star charisma essential for an actor when he does a cowboy genre film. Sandhya is wasted, Padmapriya and Lakshmi Rai are adequate, while Nassar and Saikumar as the baddies are menacing. Mouli, Ilavarasu, MS Bhaskar and the guy who plays the interpreter are hilarious.

Hats off in cowboy style to writer and director Chimbudevan for doing such good research and bringing about authenticity to his plot and acknowledging great western legendary films of the 60’s and 70’s. But if only he had worked out a better script, it would have been a great fun ride.