After ‘Lingaa’ with the ultimate Superstar Rajinikanth, commercial king director K.S.Ravikumar has delivered his next with someone who is known to Tamil audience as an actor but not as a hero. ‘Mudinja Ivana Pudi’ would have served as a fitting launchpad for the Kannada Superstar Sudeep as a Tamil hero if it did not have the hard-to-ignore dejavu feel and taxing length.
Shivam (Sudeep) is a burglar who loots the huge unaccounted money stocked by filthy rich businessmen. His look alike Sathyam (Sudeep) is a docile kind-hearted youngster who does real estate business in all fair means. Sathyam has a lover Suba (Nithya Menen) who is a upright and brave girl.
The police needs to nab the burglar. Sathyam himself launches a complaint that it is his brother Shivam who does all the crimes. A corrupt Police ACP (Sai Ravi) suspects that it is the same person who cheats everyone with dual identity. But he does not have the evidence to prove his claim.
What is the truth? Are Sathyam and Shiva two different persons or the same? What happens to the looted money? Watch the film in theatres to know the answers.
Starting the film with a heist scene that is well conceived, executed and convincingly portrayed to a large extent the audience sit straight with the expectation that vintage Ravikumar is back. But this expectation gets fulfilled only to an extent.
The film(story by T.Sivakumar) has a lot of ideas and scenes we are used to in many other films involving two different and distinct male characters and the confusion whether they are same or different persons. There is one particular scene which resembles the super hit transformation scene of Ajith in Ravikumar’s own ‘Villain’. Even the love portions and the lang drawn out flash back sequence follow the same old path. We are not saying these are bad or boring but they could have been more interesting with better ideas.
Another big problem of the film is its running length of more than two and a half hours and there are four songs finding place and hampering the narration.
Especially the second half goes on to the extent of testing the patience. Comedy which is one of the hallmarks of Ravikumar films is also not up to the mark.
Though most of the actors have spoken in their own voice we could not avoid getting the feel of watching a dubbed film at times. There are scenes in which the sync between the location and artists is missing and it is clearly evident that two different places have been matched- an indicator of poor production values.
But despite these flaws. ‘Mudinja Ivana Pudi’ is not a film that can be written off or rejected. The film does have interesting twists, thrills and really convincing heroic scenes that make us forget the pain caused by others that are uninteresting. Throughout the film there are moments that would serve as proof for Ravikumar’s screen writing skills still remaining intact. The best ones are the interval block,the investigation scene where the corrupt police officer compels the hero to accept something using his lover as a pawn and how the hero turns it in his favour and the climax sequence loaded with a lot of twists.
If the film had more of these instances, ‘MIP’ would have been a memorable commercial entertainer. In its present form it ends up as a average to okayish commercial entertainer that failed to fully utilise its potential.
Sudeep is spot on in both the roles with entirely different shades. While his effort to utter the Tamil dialogues on his own deserves appreciation his Tamil diction is highly bothersome and it is something he needs to concentrate an correct for better. Nithya Menen looks ravishing as usual and has given her best for the role that requires a actress capable of performing well.
Sathish miserably fails in his efforts to make us laugh. Mukesh Tiwari and Sarath Lohitashwa are adequate as the rich villains but the former’s lip sync gives the feel of watching a dubbed film. Sai Ravi makes an impact as the corrupt police officer. Nasser impresses well with a dignified role as usual.
The flashback sequence is impressive mainly due to the performance of Prakash Raj in it.
D.Imman’s songs just come up as fillers and speed breaks. But he has done a great job with the background score especially the theme music stands out. Cinematographer Rajatathinam and Editor Praveen Antony have done their roles without leaving anything to be complained about.
Verdict: ‘Mudinja Ivana Pudi’ is a commercial entertaier packed with thrills, twists and likeable entertainment. But the hard-to ignore dejavu feel and excessive length spoil the broth.
