Urumi...a half baked tale

As the title makes it amply clear...this is about the movie Urumi...starring Prithviraj in what could be his truly first larger-than-life filmy endeavour. No, he doesn't resort to any super hero antics but there is hardly any frame without him ...sorry, of course I remember this one shot, it had just a horse's tail and the mud kicked up by its hooves in the frame!! :-)

Though the balcony was "houseful" by the time we entered the theatre, the reservations we made earlier saved the seats for us. Even before the film started daddy was speculating when it’s going to end...and half way through the movie, the rest of us actually found ourselves doing the same and twiddling our thumbs and peering at our watch dials in the dim light. Since three of us had watched “Pazhassiraja” (hence forth referred to as P) we felt it was unfortunate that this movie was made after it…because the one among us who dint watch the P movie felt urumi was a good take, where as the rest of us felt it was a poor imitation of the P movie A poor distant cousin…

First the plot. The basic failure of the film lies in the inability to work up a tightly knit, compelling storyline. The loopholes stare in your face like black holes. The cast seems to be an under utilization of very talented actors. May be the one who is used to his full potential is Prabhu deva. Even Prithviraj, I feel couldn’t live up to his potential because of the poor script. His character is not fully developed, having only emotions of anger, revenge, righteousness, romance etc. Genelia is a misfit in her role. A similar role in ‘P’ was immortalized by the talented Padmapriya. G comes nowhere near her performance. One sincerely feels the makers had used Vidya Balan in that role. She is wasted in a useless song sequence and a couple of dialogues. That brings me to the songs. They spring up at you like ‘jack-in-the-box’. Kind of startles you…in Malayalam you could say- ‘potti mulachu’. Except for one, all the songs feel like they were fitted in later for commercial purposes. I felt disappointed there was nothing in the movie to justify its title. The weapon urumi became another wasted character, like Tabu in the song sequence. It is a one of a kind weapon; deadly, difficult to master and unbeatable if you use it correctly. The intricacies of the weapon are completely unexplored, other than a couple of shots of the wriggling golden wraith.

The saving grace is the cinematography, every frame being a treat to watch. The art direction is also wonderful with all artifacts and accessories taking one back to the period.
Personally speaking I would have preferred to see more of Arya in the movie, and preferably in the role essayed by Prithvraj. Well that’s all just too much wishful thinking.
Actually at the end of the 3 hr session I was feeling like watching Pazhassiraja again!!