Arumugham

Arumugham

Director Suresh Krishna has reheated his old formula, by lifting the plot of his Rajinikanth blockbuster Annamalai and churning out a Arumugam with poor Bharath, who tries his best but just cannot fit into the superstars shoes.

The film looks outdated, contrived and totally out of sync with modern day mass masalas. First and foremost, none of today?s young stars have the charisma and box-office pull of a Rajinikanth. Annamalai was an all time favourite of the audiences, and the director should understand that you cannot tinker that success formula with any other star.

The plot looks so banal and illogical. Arumugam (Bharath) is a good Samaritan who makes a living selling Idli?s on roadside platform shop along with his father (Ilavarasu), sister (Sarnya Mohan) and side kick (Karnas).

Arumugam is in love with his childhood sweetheart Yamini (Priyamani) His best friend is the rich kid Karthik (Satya) whose sister is an arrogant tycoon Malini (Ramya Krishnan). She and her uncle (Mahadevan) hates Karthik?s deep bonding with Arumugam, who she finds to be below her stature.

Malini, through her machinations is able to separate the friends and bring Arumugam to the streets. Our hero after his mother?s (Seetha) grave is bulldozed and his sister humiliated, vows to bring Malini to the streets. And like you have seen in hundreds of earlier films the hero due to his hard work and smart moves becomes the richest man in the town and takes his revenge.

The film makes you feel suffocated and every scene is predictable. There are no surprise twists or turns in the narration. Music of Deva which used to be one of the highlights of Suresh Krishna movies of the 90?s is worth a snore. Punchline dialogues itself are rehashes of earlier films!

Ramya Krishnan with heavy make-up tries to do another Padayappa Neelambari act, but her role is so badly etched that she sticks out like a sore thumb. Priyamani who has hardly anything to do should not waste her time in this song and dance rigmarole.

The audiences are bored of such rehashes of earlier mass masalas of the 80?s and 90?s. The director should understand that the masala mix has changed, and he should make films with more soul and style.

Verdict- Poor