Neruppuda review round-up: Vikram Prabhu's latest is high on hero-worship, low on innovation

The latest Tamil release Neruppuda starring Vikram Prabhu and Nikki Galrani opened to mixed reactions from the critics. [caption id=“attachment_4026437” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Vikram Prabhu in Neruppuda poster. Image via Twitter[/caption] Written and directed by newcomer Ashok Kumar, Neruppuda features Prabhu as an aspiring fireman who in turn inspires his friends to follow suit. Prabhu’s character is the archetypal ‘hero’ who is looked upon as a leader, decision maker and guide by his friends, his girlfriend (Galrani, who appears for a brief time in the movie) and everybody around him. The film shows how he manages to make his and his friends’ lives better, even in times of crises. But, all of this is too predictable and offers no innovation in terms of the script; so much so that the suspense in the film appears to be contrived. M Suganth from The Times of India writes: “Neruppuda, at first, feels like a tried-and-tested action film — a group of youngsters versus a powerful gangster. But Ashok Kumar keeps subverting the masala movie cliches that he throws at us. We think the film is going to be about Guru’s (Prabhu) schemes to escape the wrath of Ravi (Madhusudhan), but then something unexpected happens. And just when we are told that the friends are safe, and start to heave a sigh of relief, another unexpected event happens. In fact, the film’s intermission is a plot point that most action movies reach only during their pre-climax portion.” Rakesh Mehar from The News Minute says: “Debutant director B Ashok Kumar tries to compensate for this with a lot of dramatic camera sweeps and heroic close-ups, accompanied by a loud soundtrack. But clearly mass effect doesn’t just come from high volume. The real pity is that the starting sequence is actually quite exciting on its own, and has the seeds of a good film in it. If the Neruppuda team had stuck with an honest story about fire fighting, building from there, they might have had a cracker of a film on their hands. And Vikram does give you a sense in moments that he could handle a more genuinely heroic film like that.” Ashameera Aiyappan from The Indian Express opines: “Neruppuda is an overstretched, hero-glorifying film that barely does anything else. The few minor decoys fail to save the lacklustre screenplay. This could have been a kidnapping gone wrong story, or the story of betrayal. But rather the story just moves hither-thither in an attempt to keep the suspense element. Not much is convincing, even the stunts. The story goes on a completely different tangent just before the climax, another huge letdown and also probably loudest letdown.” Udhav Naig from The Hindu writes: “The writer employs conventional writing techniques from time to time to make things tick: when the audience thinks that Guru and his friends are finished, they are not. When the audience thinks that Guru is off the hook, he gets into a bigger problem. Unfortunately, these techniques only provide a cosmetic makeover to a script that is bereft of originality. Things do get interesting after the film re-establishes itself late into the second half as an actual ‘whodunit’. But the big reveal feels contrived much like the film itself.”