Perusu Review - Fascinating Idea, but Flat Narration!

Ashwin Ram

Perusu is an adult rural comedy starring Vaibhav, Sunil Reddy, Chandini Tamilarasan and Niharika NM in the lead roles. The film is directed by Ilango Ramanathan.

Premise:

Vaibhav and Sunil Reddy are brothers, their dad passes away while watching television at home. Though it is a natural death, something weird happens which the whole family tries to hide from the people and how they secretly sort it out forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

The title ‘Perusu’ is pitch-perfect, there cannot be a better double meaning word to define the plot and as well as the central character of this adult comedy flick. The core idea is terrific and refreshing for Tamil cinema, sadly it lacks development. The film’s threat is open to the audience just by vaguely introducing the old man. The casting is big, all the known artists are pulled in who drive the film throughout, but their characters are weakly presented with no uniqueness to differentiate. Though they are all a family, there could have been a wide range of purposes for them to make the flow interesting rather than making everybody be on the same page. There are a few enjoyable moments here and there, but it doesn’t entertain in totality. Like a TV serial, they keep introducing new artists in the second half without any exciting movement in the story, except for the one towards the end. Many jokes don’t land as intended, that is because the taboo idea suffers from generic writing, directorial issues exist when converting scenes from the paper to the screen. The ending is very good, it showcases how absurd people are when it comes to what they are ashamed of and what they are okay about, this particular portion has a surprise element too.

Performances:

Vaibhav’s dialogue modulation is apt for a drunkard role, but he doesn’t offer anything special beyond that. Sunil Reddy played his part well, he has carried certain scenes well which are in the subtle comic zone. Ensemble artists and there is no doubt that they are all proven talents… Chandini Tamilarasan, Niharika NM, Bala Saravanan, Munishkanth, Karunakaran, Redin Kingsley, VTV Ganesh, etc have all done their part. The biggest issue is that there is no varied purpose to the characters and the writing does not offer them much scope to shine bright. Even the lead duo travel on the same page without any dynamic qualities.

Technicalities:

Music is quite good, two composers have associated to deliver the songs and background score. Good work by both which helps the mood of the film. Tricky subject to handle the camera for, neat work by establishing the idea clearly and also doesn’t go overboard despite the bizarre nature to it. Two hours runtime sounds good, but the output feels super long, there is a solid space for trimming in both the halves, the entire auto-ride stretch in the first and the young boy track in the second.

Bottomline

A superlative idea that is good enough to make a fun flick, unfortunate that it fails to engage despite carrying a truckload of genre-friendly actors. Yet another example of how underwhelming writing and uninteresting character developments can misfire.

Rating - 2.5/ 5