One almost wishes Tamil cinema could be banned from making movies revolving around the army. Barring the
occasional Roja , the Indian army has not fared very well in Tamil movies. As
seen in movies like Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven , it has simply provided a
different backdrop to have the same inane jokes and illogical stories. Indru, inspite of elements like
terrorism and patriotism thrown in, is unfortunately another addition to this list.
Gautham(Karthik), a major in the army, is aboard a ship going from Ooty to Goa when his colleague Richard(Sriman)
is murdered. The army classifies it as a suicide but Gautham is determined to find the truth. Evidence that
Richard pointed him to before he died leads Gautham to uncover a conspiracy involving some higher-ups in the army
itself. In his quest to find the people behind it, he is helped by Richard's sister Jennifer(Thanu Rai), who he also falls in
love with, and Nandhita(Maina), a mysterious woman who may have a few secrets of her own.
The movie has atleast two things going for it. Having the army as the backdrop lends some difference to the proceedings
and the story, involving murders, conspiracies and terrorism, contains all the ingredients needed to construct a good
thriller, a genre Tamil cinema has few solid entries in. But the movie fails to capitalise on either of these aspects.
While the army is pretty much made a mockery of, the movie's loose screenplay, illogical happenings and languid pace
drain away all interest in the main story.
Setting a movie in the army requires a big budget and a competent director who can stage the scenes in a convincing manner.
Indru has neither of these, leading to amateurish sequences like the opening one where Karthik rescues a couple
of kidnapped army men. But the constraints in staging such sequences can make one overlook such scenes. What rankles more
is the lack of reality or logic in its characterization of the armymen. While Karthik goes around wearing a variety of disguises to
catch the bad men, his two assistants, who also hold high ranks, behave like clowns. Looking for comedy, the director has turned
them into the usual sidekicks of Tamil movies. So we get two armymen who leer at women and don't even know what the
word 'password' means!
The movie lacks the fast pace or surprising twists to hold our interest. We know the moment Devan is introduced in the first
scene that he will turn out to be a bad guy. And the low number of people to cast our suspicion on makes it clear pretty
early who the mole in the army is. The only character the director handles well is 'Nizhalgal' Ravi, since we never know where
his loyalties lie. The sequences where Karthik and his team play the bad guys off each other also show some sparks of
cleverness but the sparks die off pretty quickly.
Karthik looks old and his unsuitable, artificial wig really stands out. He lacks the aggressive nature that would have made his
character interesting and his dialog delivery is terrible. Neither Thanu Rai nor Maina appear to have long careers in acting based
on their performances here. Karunas makes some lame attempts at making us laugh while Sriman overacts in the little time he
is given. Actors like 'Nizhalgal' Ravi, 'Pyramid' Natrajan, 'Thalaivasal' Vijay and Devan are their usual selves and are not stretched
much.
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