'Irugapattru' movie review: Red flags, toxic love and the methods of madness in love

Cast: Shraddha Srinath, Vikram Prabhu, Sri, Saniya Iyappan, Vidharth and Abarnathi

Director: Yuvaraj Dhayalan

Language: Tamil

Toxic traits in partners, red flags that are invisible in the initial stages of love, and trauma inflicted by partners are educated observations that a certain section of individuals in urban society speak of. Tinder, Bumble and other dating apps have become playground for individuals who are looking for love, and dating has become a game that many try to play, but not with ease. At some point, partners move from dating to wedding and in marriage find flaws in compatibility. Buried red flags resurface, and you one partner inflicting hurt on another — intentionally or not. So how does one really approach relationship in this day and age when therapy, and couple’s counselling is seen as only a solution for the elites? In the film Irugapattru, director Yuvaraj Dhayalan has attempted to bring to life three different couples who occupy different spaces in the relationship. They are all married, but each of them experience different kinds of issues.

Initially, as we watch the film unfurl, it is lovely to see a bit of diversity in terms of the kind of relationships that we see around us. Couples who have fallen out of love, hurt caused by micro aggressions, and non compatibility takes center-stage in this relationship drama. If we were to place this film in a genre, it aspires to occupy the same space of Modern Love, or Cha Cha Real Smooth. However, where it fails, unfortunately is in the contrary nature of resolution of conflicts.

For instance, with Mithra Manohar (Shraddha Srinath), who is a marriage counsellor herself, the struggle is in confronting her partner Manohar’s (Vikram Prabhu) very basic need. He believes that possessiveness goes hand in hand with love, and such behaviour marks true depth of one’s feelings for their partner. To be fair, there are men, women and people of other gender who believe that possessiveness is sign of love. However, the way in which Mithra attempts to resolve this conflict in her relationship is not relatable. Even her attempts to ensure that her relationship doesn’t go through the same issues as her clients, while initially an interesting idea becomes foreign when she decides to treat her own marriage as another of her cases. How is she even objective in this case? Is she truly so far removed from this relationship that she is able to make such logical decisions as coming up with the idea of an hour or so a week of “honest talk”. There is dissonance here, and it really puts one off their whole story, As a member of the audience I just did not feel a tug for their relationship and at no point did I want to invest my interests in their outcome.

The second couple — Arjun (Sri) and Divya (Saniya Iyappan) — face a very common problem in marriage that is often swept under the rug. This is about falling out of love with one’s partner over time for various reasons. In Arjun and Divya’s case, it is a pile up of micro aggression that has caused an erosion in their relationship. Initially, it seems that Divya is only bullheaded about wanting an out from this relationship. However, the deeper we look, the clearer the issue is, but yet again, the resolution is too haphazard. Where is the punishment for micro aggression? Do we forgive such things in a day or over a pretty montage if it were to occur in real life? There is no sincere introspection here and yet again, there is dissonance.

Finally, for the third couple — Rangesh (Vidharth) and Pavithra (Abarnathi). Pavithra happens to be one of my favourite characters in the film because she is probably one of the women that I have come across most commonly in life. One who is married, faces her husband’s wrath often in the form of verbal abuse or insults and still manages to go on about her day because that is what is expected of her. She even has a sense of humour, mind you. Her husband seems to have a problem with her recent wait gain after pregnancy, and he makes sarcastic remarks often about her appearance. As we get to know Rangesh through Mithra’s session, we realize that he has been traumatised by something himself, and has been lashing out at his wife as a means of letting out his frustration. Rangesh transforms into this character who deserves sympathy and forgiveness and that is where the film truly angered me. No one can be entitled to forgiveness after causing emotional turmoil in a partner. One cannot lash out in anger and then seek forgiveness because they have also been hurt in the past. It just sets a very bad precedent. It is not that Rangesh ‘acted’ entitled, but that the film painted him in such sympathetic tones that his story would illicit unquestioned sympathies. What happened to learning curve? What happened to working for forgiveness and turning around the relationship over time? Not everything can be resolved overnight, and if the film had allowed some time for the resolution to play out, and held conversations around it instead of sappy monologues, it would have been great.

Even though Justin Prabhakaran’s music by itself is beautiful, it can compensate for what it truly missing in this film — and that is a reflection of relationships in society today. Divorce is a part of the conversation, yes, but the deliberation behind this decision is not well-intentioned. The film puts the need for a “happy ending” before the need of its main characters’ well-being and in this day and age, this decision makes the film seem lacklustre. It is not a bad film, but neither is it something that you would go back to watch like you would films such as Silver Linings Playbook or The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars)

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics.

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