Rudhran Movie Review : Raghava Lawrence’s formulaic Rudhran fails to impress

Rudhran Movie Synopsis: Can an IT professional overcome personal losses and defeat a notorious gangster who targets his family’s property?

Rudhran (Tamil)

Director: Kathiresan

Cast: Raghava Lawrence, Sarathkumar, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Poornima Bhagyaraj, Nassar

Runtime: 149 minutes

Storyline: A man goes on a killing spree and, as always, there’s a sentimental reason for the carnage

With the exception of the ghosts, “Rudhran” is basically another “Kanchana” movie. It features a cheery hero, a contented family, a cunning villain, a dramatic confrontation in a temple, and a message about those who are taken advantage of by society.

Rudhran is a good vengeance action film with some fine stunt work and tough themes that might have succeeded if it had been released a few decades earlier. It’s actually unbelievable that we have a movie that does what hundreds of movies have done for aeons now in today’s Tamil cinema, where getting even for the death of every relative out there has been done and dusted, and at a time when John Wick is killing a town’s worth of people avenging the murder of his dog. It is true that the cause of the murders that our hero must revenge is original, but the issue of whether that little innovation merits a movie is one that the movie attempts to answer positively but falls short of.

There are innumerable movies that Rudhran will make you think about. One of Rudhran’s opening moments is an action scene in which Raghava Lawrence’s portrayal of the title character decimates a group of thugs who, like they usually do, are pursuing a woman, taking a cue from Rajinikanth’s two most recent flops, Darbar and Annaatthe. The main goon is sent flying in a split second, and a person can be seen emerging from the shadows a few hundred metres distant by the time the henchman have batted their eyes open once. Before you can even begin to guess the type of joke that is going to be the response, a goon yells, “Yaaru da avan!” another responds, “Rudhran da!”

However, who is Rudhran? Why is he picking on Bhoomi’s (Sarathkumar) men? Why is he fleeing? Why would he nearly kill a man who only arrives at the house to bring water cans? The “Jorthaale” dance sequence appears in the movie while we anxiously await the answers. The solutions do appear in the second half of the movie, at around the time the movie makes you feel like you’ve been in a duel with Rudhran. The first half of the film follows a non-linear plot and simultaneously bombards us with flashes of needless feeling in the form of flashback scenes and physics-defying action from the present.

We discover that Rudhran is the adorable child of a contented couple (played by Poornima Bhagyaraj and Nassar), and that the two of them make up a household that might have been taken straight out of a Vikraman movie. Rudhran finally falls in love and marries Ananya (Priya Bhavani Shankar) thanks to fate and a cleverly structured storyline. It’s obviously too good to be true, and how can a family be joyful when it isn’t the final frame of the movie? Rudhran loses everything as a result of a minor quarrel, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this.

In conclusion, Rudhran is a painful watch that offers nothing novel and attempts to play on cliches that have long been successful but fall short for the same reason. How challenging could it possibly be to provide the audience with a fun commercial entertainer? It appears to be really challenging.

Rudhran is currently playing in theatres