Niram Marum Ulagil

The desperation to make the audience emotionally moved far exceeds the focus on telling a compelling story. For a film on the changing nature of people's colours, its characters are either reduced to black or white. The daughter-in-law or to-be daughter-in-law in every story seems to be based on everyday Tamil soap. They are vengeful, hatred-filled ladies who cannot simply stand their mother-in-laws. Haven't we left this trope for good back in the 90's? These characters merely serve as pawns to put mothers and their sacrifices on a pedestal. If there's any merit, no parent is blamed for raising their children to be the way they are in the film, thankfully. However, you constantly question yourself—why does the storytelling flip down and under when the filmmaking speaks volumes of its technical finesse?

All the four stories in the film show promise and are interestingly written, but the way in which they are executed onscreen makes it too melodramatic than the subtle emotions that are needed for such kind of a film. It is clearly evident that the makers wanted to keep the focus on the film being a proper tear jerker. There’s also the problem of Niram Maarum Ulagil being overlong, and that also works against the film with all the stories being only thick enough to be narrated in a span of under 30 minutes. Niram Maarum Ulagil ultimately turns out to be an over emotional film that keeps the ball rolling with its storylines hailing parenthood. Verdict: A passable yet noble set of stories on parenthood and aging.