Irumbu Kuthirai Movie Review

Synopsis: Prithvi, a young man, is haunted by his past and despite his mother’s attempts, refuses to come out of his shell. He begins to move on after he falls in love with Samyuktha, a chirpy girl, he meets accidentally. But she is kidnapped by some bikers when out on a joyride and Prithvi is forced to confront his past.

Movie Review: Irumbu Kuthirai has an interesting (if familiar) premise about a young man forced to let go of his past by having to confront it. Here, Prithvi, who is doing his CA and working part-time as a pizza delivery boy, is trapped by guilt and blames himself for the death of his father in a motorcycle accident. This has made him wary of riding a bike but his understanding mom tries to get him back in the groove but is unsuccessful. She even chides him when he acts like a model son. However, everything changes when Prithvi sees Samyuktha. He falls in love with her and to make her reciprocate his love, develops a friendly relationship with her. She is a “bike Wikipedia” and forces him into buying a superbike. And, when the two go out for the first time, Samyuktha is kidnapped by mysterious bikers. And, this has something to do with Prithvi’s past. Can he overcome his personal demons and rescue her?

Irumbu Kuthirai has been publicized as a bike racing film but what really works is the romance. Atharvaa and Priya Anand are likeable leads and this helps the romantic track. The meet-cute(s) is really nicely done. Samyuktha first tells Prithvi that she is madly in love with him and has been following him for quite some time. This is an intriguing set-up and there is some freshness in the manner in which the subsequent scenes are worked out. The director even integrates the film’s setting — Pondicherry — effectively into this track. As in Arima Nambi, which also was about a girl getting kidnapped (which also was Priya Anand) and her not-yet-lover boyfriend trying to rescue her, we can understand why Prithvi would risk his life to save Samyuktha.

Yuvaraj, in fact, does a good job in giving us a peek into Prithivi’s world. The friendly relationship that Prithvi shares with his mother (an effective Devadarshini) reminds you of a similar rapport between Gautham Karthik and Anupama Kumar (who appears in this film as the heroine’s aunt) in Yennamo Yedho, but here, it is done better. Prithvi’s relationship with his dad (the late Raghuvaran, in the form of a photograph), though, isn’t as impactful, despite the director trying hard to make him a significant presence throughout the film. The other sore point is the mood-killing songs.

But, most importantly, the racing portions are a letdown. The role of the antagonist (played by Johnny Tri Nguyen) is underwritten and thus, we are never taken in by this part of the film. The reason why this guy is after Prithvi feels feeble. And, for a man who is still harbouring guilt about his past, we are not convinced when Prithvi doesn’t realize who the kidnapper is soon enough. The showdown between the two is also over-long — first, we get a seemingly never-ending fisticuffs and then this moves on to a bike race, which despite the daring shots and furious cuts, isn’t as exciting as it should be.