Iraivi is another brilliant film from Karthik Subbaraj. Very rarely do we get such directors who have a clear vision and manage to bring it perfectly on screen. SJ Surya is a movie director who falls into drinking habit because his latest film is stuck in the cans. His wife Kamalinee Mukherjee is understanding and supports him. Bobby Simha is his brother. Vijay Sethupathi works for SJ Surya’s family. The film also has Anjali. The film focusses on its leading ladies and their lives. The film talks about the importance of women, not in a preachy manner but in an engaging way. Three known heroes acting together is rare in tamil and the director has ensured that all of them have importance. This is SJ Surya’s career best as an actor and it is an award deserving film. He is fantastic. Others have also played their respective role to perfection. The heroines have also done well especially Anjali. Technically the film is top class. Santosh Narayanan’s songs are extraordinary but some of them have not been picturized well. His background score lifts certain important scenes to another level. Art direction is good especially the house with antique idols (a scene has the old kerosene cycle light). The film is entirely a director’s movie and Karthik makes a mark in every scene. As always he pays homage to several film personalities: Illayaraja’s music, MGR car with 4777 number, TMS, Balachander, Rajini, Rehman and some Hollywood and Bollywood movies. Loved the dialogues especially the ones uttered by Vijay Sethupathi’s lover and Surya’s dialogue to Vaibhav. The film is slow in the first half but slowly picks pace and the last 20min is very good. There is some excessive violence and sexual references. The film is not suitable for kids. A hat-trick for Karthik.
