Veerayi Makkal Movie Review: A melodrama with excessive sermonizing about family values

Writer-director Nagaraj Karuppaih’s Veerayi Makkal is a straightforward drama about the conflicts between three brothers and a sister that span across multiple generations. The film begins with Angamma (Senthilkumari) spewing a spiteful rant about her brother-in-law and sister-in-law from across the door. Her wailing and the subsequent reaction to it reek of a sense of deep-seated hatred among the family, especially its top brass. Only Suresh Nanda’s character, Ayyanar, appears to be a pacifist here, at least on the periphery. Initially, he does not understand why his father and his siblings do not like one another, and neither does the audience until five minutes into the second half. Once the film reveals the reason for the central conflict with an obligatory flashback, the rest of the screenplay practically writes itself.

Director: Nagaraj Karuppaih

Cast: Vela Ramamoorthy, Marimuthu, Deepa Shankar, Gerald Milton, Senthilkumari, Pandi

Veerayi Makkal is a film with excessive melodrama and the sensibilities of a soap opera. The film sets up its premise reasonably well, but the treatment makes its simple moments seem unnecessarily grandiose. It delivers the resolutions in an equally straightforward way as well. It would have been more effective to show how the characters resolve the central dilemma instead of showing us why it exists. In the beginning, Ayyanar promises his mora ponnu Eshwari (Nandana) that he will eventually bring his family together. It is a promise that almost makes you overlook the fact that he is talking to a school-going child, who is about 15 years younger than him. And while the plot eventually meanders its way to the resolution, Suresh’s character becomes a mere spectator in the journey. Likewise, it only takes a piece of sermon from a close family member for Angamma to realise the folly of her ways. 

On the other hand, Maruthamuthu's (Vela Ramamoorthy) wife Sornam (Rama) tells her son Ayyanar that his father holds his brothers Balu (the late Marimuthu) and Selvaraj (Gerald Milton) and sister Vadivu (Deepa Shankar) close to his heart. It seems true when Maruthamuthu's eyes start to brim with tears on realising how much he misses the custom of offering Pongal to his sister. However, he does not bother to console Vadivu when she publicly begs his forgiveness for her past mistakes. Likewise, when he tears apart a letter from his college-going brother notifying him of a marriage against traditions, it seems bizarre because the film has enough in the way of conflict already. So much for thambi and thangachi paasam.

Deepa Shankar's character seems to have a bottomless well of tears, which she generously shares throughout the film. If waterworks were an Olympic event, she would be a gold medalist. The sad part is that nobody bothers to ask her why she is crying until very late into the film. Undoubtedly, Deepa delivers an earnest performance, but it is hard to care for her character because it is one-dimensional. In fact, the same goes for every other character in the film. Even the old woman, Veerayi (Pandi), gets her fair share of hand-wringing, despite being a mere supporting character. Speaking of which, when it gets to the flashback involving Veerayi, the other characters hardly age. They are supposed to be 20 years younger. In fact, if you think about it in another way, it definitely makes sense why one of the brothers looks almost the same even 20-odd years ago. When there is such an epochal family issue to take care of, maybe it ages someone quickly.