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How far will you go for love asks Selvaraghavan through his latest film's tagline, but having seen the trailer of Irandam Ulagam the question on everyone's mind is how far has Selvaraghavan gone with his imagination and if he's taken Tamil cinema the distance with him? Irandam Ulagam is a tale of fantasy involving two worlds with several elements that are universal, including the pair of Arya and Anushka. In each world their relationship is provided with its own unique acts and dynamics.
The power of love and the warring between good and evil are not the only things that are universal, as it appears that superstitions of black tongued curses and bar songs too are common place around the galaxies. But the director uses those nuances to make the audience feel at home in his created landscape just as he points out the crimes of men ill-treating women – a thread which gives Anushka's character Varna her personality.
As the shy doctor Ramya and as the fierce warrior Varna, Anushka is simply at her best showcasing a wide range of emotions and stunts. It is her performance that stands as a pivot for the rest of the story to take shape. Arya as the warrior, with his massive physique reminds us that there is hardly anyone else in the industry who could have been so fitting for this role. The Georgian actors featured in this film definitely deserve a word of praise for their efforts to get their Tamil lip sync correct. But it does invariably add some kind of artificiality to the proceedings. The other peripheral characters like Venkatesh Hariharan and Padma Raman are good in their fleeting appearances.
The film's biggest strength is its visuals and credit to the creative director Merzin Tavaria and the team at Firefly Creative Studios for putting out one of the most VFX rich Tamil films without making it seem too jarring. It's easy for the cinematographer's work to be buried under such vast amounts of VFX but Ramji's precisional framing and lighting is what serves as the backbone for the VFX. The same can be said about Kola Bhaskar's editing as he painstakingly pieces together scenes that are heavily layered with CG work.
For a music director who's barely 3 films old scoring for this film could be a daunting task but Anirudh comes out triumphant with a great background score which doesn't let down the narration. Its a disappointment that a couple of Harris's songs don't have room in this 2 hour and 40 minute visual spectacle. 'Kanimozhiye' and 'Panangkalla' have come out well.
Irandam Ulagam, no doubt, is a movie made with lot of passion, courage and one which had demanded lot of effort from the filmmaking team. But Selvarghavan's idea of pure love may not necessarily find acceptance with everyone which results in the concept or the characters feeling emotionally detached from the audience. Also, the leisure paced screenplay and some character inconsistencies in the first half could add to the audience's restlessness.
