Director: Antony Bhagyaraj
Siren is the only Tamil release this weekend. With expectations already set and nowhere to go, Siren becomes the only target and the audience are the victims here.
Siren starts with a murder and cuts to a teen girl Malar ( Yuvina Parthavi) giving a speech on father’s day and winning a prize. The father, Thilagan ( Jayam Ravi) is serving a sentence for an unknown murder. Reportedly, he didn’t commit the murder and he is a model prisoner certified by the police themself. He goes on a 15 days parole as his father is unwell, but it is clear that he is onto something and there is no hiding in there. Velankanni ( Yogi Babu) is Jayam Ravi’s shadow police and Nandhini ( Keerthy Suresh) is Inspector of a particular station, Thilagan is reporting everyday. Nandhini is back from suspension the day Thilagan is reporting and it is said that Nandhini was under suspension for custodial violence. Even though Nandhini proved that she didn’t kill anyone and proved it, not a lot took that to their head.
Both of them are being accused for something they didn’t do, parallelly 2 politicians are killed. Nandhini is suspecting Thilagan but reports and evidence say otherwise but it is clear, Thilagan has something to do with both the murders. Did Thilagan murder the politician? What was he like, before 15 years? Does Nandhini find out who killed them? Does an estranged father and daughter mend their relationship? Siren is all about that.
Siren started out as a crime thriller then went on to become an emotional drama and the second half is a mindless revenge thriller.
First half of the film was busy creating an emotional connection between the daughter and father. Despite them trying too hard, the audience cannot connect with the emotional scenes . After establishing his past then it becomes a proper revenge story with unnecessary fight and chase scenes.
Antony Bhagyaraj and Siren tried to talk about a lot of things like custodial violence, caste, corruption among politicians and police and the life of a convict. Even if it just stuck to any one genre, there won’t be much change in the movie. Siren, gave a major tamil movie from 2015 times vibe with unnecessary thriller, emotional, fights and songs.
Looking at the acting part, Jayam Ravi’s younger Thilagan is expressive and vibrant and older Thilagan sporting a gray beard and hair has very reserved reactions and emotions. Keerthy as an unapologetic cop is always serious and has the same reaction for most of the movie. Yogi Babu’s one- liners worked but not all the time and he delivers what is required.The songs and music were composed by GV Prakash Kumar, and they are okay but not memorable either. Anupama as Thilagan’s wife is deaf and mute nurse and she is pretty and was pretty while dying too.
Overall, Siren is an unimpressive timepass and too melodramatic to be a crime thriller.
Rating: 2/5