Siren movie review: Jayam Ravi-Keerthy Suresh crime thriller is underwhelming helobaba.com
When a movie is touted as a crime thriller, there are obviously high expectations from the audience. People expect murder, mystery, suspense, red herrings, and so on. Siren starring Jayam Ravi, Keerthy Suresh, Yogi Babu and Anupama Parameswaran is a crime thriller: so did this Antony Bhagyaraj-directed film fulfill all those promises? Also read | Lal Salaam movie review: Aishwarya Rajinikanth back with a bang
The premise
As the movie starts out, we meet a 14-year-old young girl, who reveals that her father is behind bars and she doesn’t have a relationship with him. And who is her father? Meet Thilagan (Jayam Ravi), who hasn’t interacted with his child for 14 years and is serving a sentence for reportedly murdering someone. Despite the offers from the parole board to go visit his child and family, Thilagan refuses to step out of jail for 14 years. Suddenly he is desperate to see his daughter and form a relationship with her so he goes on a two-week parole to his home.
Cut to a parallel track, where we see police inspector Nandini (Keerthy Suresh) suspended for allegedly killing someone. She denies having killed anyone and luckily, the post-mortem supports her version. Nandini is reinstated in the police force and heads the station, where Thilagan has to report every day while on parole.
Meanwhile, police constable Velankanni (Yogi Babu) is assigned to monitor Thilagan 24 by 7 while he’s on parole. Suddenly, a spate of murders take place in that town and Nandini suspects Thilagan. Are both Thilagan and Nandini really free of committing any crimes? What happened to Thilagan’s wife (Anupama Parameswaran)? What is the truth behind these murders?
What works (a little) and what does not
Director Antony Bhagyaraj, who has written this film, and has tried to give us a thriller that has two other themes – the father-daughter sentiment and the revenge drama. And the director deliberately seems to have divided the film delineating these two halves. The first half of the film heavily focuses on the former trying to establish how much Thilagan loves his child and is desperate for her love. The second half shifts towards the revenge drama aspect.
Does it work? The first half is really slow and despite the attempt to create audience empathy and an emotional connection with the father-daughter sob story, it doesn’t really work. Nandini’s story also seems a bit far-fetched and unrealistic while the villains are nothing to write home about. The second half fares slightly better but on the whole this story is old wine in an old bottle with no novelty factor. There are many scenes that have been included just to take the story forward and some seem too contrived. The writing – not just of the story but even the characters – could have been better to make it more engaging.
As for the performances, Jayam Ravi plays a younger Thilagan and an older Thilagan sporting a gray beard and hair, and he has underplayed his character. His measured performance as convict and father Thilagan is a change from his recent films. Keerthy Suresh’s character is more serious and it’s one-dimensional – she repeatedly denies having killed anyone and has the same expression throughout most of the film. Yogi Babu is there for the comic factor and he delivers what is required. GV Prakash Kumar has scored the music and songs and it’s par for the course.
On the whole, Siren is too melodramatic as a crime thriller and is an underwhelming timepass.
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