UYIRE (2019) - TV Series
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| Critic - No.168 |
Writer: Jaya Rathakrishnan
Casts: Puravalan, Ashwini, Guna, Indra, Arvind Naidu, Nisha Kumar, James Kumar, Malene, Thavanesan, Nishana, Sankari
Language: Tamil
Genre: Family Drama
Episodes: 62
Music: Vicknesh Saravanan, Kala Charan
SYNOPSIS:
An ex-military officer father, a kind and supportive mother, three smart and capable daughters - Raagavan and his family seem to have it all - happiness, wealth and an unshakeable family bond. Secrets get revealed that threaten to break apart the family.
REVIEW:
You don’t see much TV series reviews in this blog but sometimes, some work you stumble upon will push you to talk or debate about it. One such work was ‘Uyire’ a 62 episode long form drama that reminded me of my favourite Singapore TV series, ‘Nijangal 2’ that was aired 7 years ago. This spiritual similarities is not purely coincidental as both series were helmed by the same creative team. As suggested by the synopsis, the series follows the tribulations faced by each characters in the family in an individual track. I will briefly touch upon each tracks with my thoughts.
Raghavan-Charu
Ex-military officer Rahagavan (Puravalan) has the most complex inner voice in this whole series where we take some time to understand the rift between him and his wife, Charu (Ashwini); and his relationship with a single mother, Renuka (Nishana). Devarajan plays a strong cameo as Renuka’s husband who dies in a heat stroke during a training, causing Raghavan to foster his family. I found this as the most underplayed and matured track of all, excellently handled by the veterans. The conflict was more internal than external. Ashwini scores the most with the least dialogues. Nishana’s character was the most layered I felt with her emotions going haywire, gradually turning into a silent antagonist wants Raghavan for herself. On the flipside, the climax in the hospital where all parties reveal shocking news back to back to dying Charu was highly unbelievable. Charu’s cancer episode could have been treated with more urgency as well.
Ashwin-Priyanka
Ashwin and Priyanka’s marriage was the first inciting incident the series started with. What started of as a perfect romance turned dark when Priyanka (Nisha) showed signs of hiding away her past relationship and the abortion. What I liked about the track is how the writer was bold enough to break the norm (for local context) to show that Priyanka was the one who left Kannan (James Kumar) after knowing about her pregnancy. In contrast, Kannan was shown as a caring boyfriend who was willing to take care of Priyanka. I really rooted for Kannan’s character and never really turned against him till the end even when he evolved into a psychopath. However, the whole stalking episode of Kannan over Priyanka turning into a ‘Moodupani’ kind of kidnap was a little far-fetched for me. I never understood Kannan’s economical quality who suddenly affords such a exotic place though. The realistic factor of this track felt strapped with a filmy climax that just doesn’t settle for me. Arvind’s controlled expressions and his emotional bursts of confusion in a dining scene with Nisha, literally showed that he is one of the best actors we have. The thematic line of trust and love was very well handled in this track. The couple were driven to their limits throughout but the feel good closure left a big smile on my face.
Bhumika-Nishok
Bhumika (Malene), who is the last child of the house is shown as a rebel ‘teenager’ kind of a girl who has zero faith in marriage. The ‘Mani Ratnam’ kind of flirting and romance shown between Bhumi and Nishok (Thavanesan) felt a little too unrealistic and I got detached a little whenever this track comes. I liked their ideological clashes when they both started living together. Thavanesan is a very natural actor and delivers a better show than his debut. We have seen many confused female protagonists in films (e.g Jessie from VTV) but its very difficult to understand Bhumi who looks confused from the start. Yes, we see Nishok flirting with a girl and breaking the trust of Bhumi, but intentionally or not, it also looked like Bhumi was consciously leading her boss (Mark Sara) on as well. Both looked, equally unfaithful and materialistic, but I don’t think that was the intention of the writer. To further analyse the character, we also see Bhumi (the angsty rebel) reacting angrily when she gets to know that her mother has advanced stage of cancer. In fact she looked angry during any family discussion. To dilute more, in the finale episode, when Bhumi (after two years) talks to her boss about his confession two years ago and she asks for more time, it just feels weird as if the time has not passed for them. I just felt that what started off brilliantly with an attempt to explore current relationship problems, lost a bit of focus compared to the other tracks.
Rajesh-Keerthi
This was my most favourite trak which I felt was the most realistic story of all. The emotions were powerful, the acting was top notch and the message pricks you in your heart at the end. The track focuses on how a wealthy mini-mart owner turns into a drug and gold smuggler. To make it worse, he also has an affair with a typical gold digger, young girl who plays a vital role in causing his down fall. In midst of this main plot, we are also thrown other interesting themes such as low self esteem/body shaming among teenagers, housewife’s struggle to keep up with changes in workforce after many years and struggles of a mother who can’t get along with her teenage daughter. All these were greatly weaved in this track with the right proportion. Sankari who plays as the teenage daughter, Kamini, has so much of variance and depth in her performance. But what happened between Kamini and her boyfriend that united her with her mother, still remains a mystery (scene removed?). Indra who is challenged with so much of problems in this series (mother’s sickness, husband who puts her down, daughter who insults her and her own internal struggles to keep up with the workforce) has given her best performance in her career. Of course, the show stealer of the entire series was undoubtedly Guna. Right from his stuttering dialogue delivery and anxious body language, he has engineered his entire character in detail with a great consistency. The scene where he gets to know that the police has identified him, the shot on his highlighted eyes in a car, just communicates his pain so thoroughly without saying a word. The scene that affected me the most was his final moments where he eats his favourite food as a last wish in the jail and he struggles to swallow his grief. I can go on but I need a whole new article to analyse this track.
To conclude, I loved how the entire story came around a circle and the daughters end up staying with their parents, just like how it was before their marriage. Like what Raghavan utters to Charu at the end, it sometimes better to hold off, learn from the mistakes and then restart.
Kumaran and Abbas’ direction was sharp and Jaya’s earnest writing was a major strength to the drama. I am not pledging that the series had path breaking concept but the simplicity and relatability of the story was the major advantage. I would say it was Jaya’s best after Nijangal 2, it had no pretentious moments. Viknesh Saravanan’s BGM was very well placed to support the emotions while Kala Charan’s addictive theme music comes again at the finale in a sadder version to haunt us further.
In overall, Uyire is an example of how a tried and tested concept can be very well presented with a good creative direction, realistic writing and strong performances. Kudos to the entire team!
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