‘Udanpirappe’ movie review: This pilot for a mega serial goes nowhere

With a battalion of actors such as Jyotika, Sasikumar and Samuthirakani at the centre, it is disappointing that director Era Saravanan feeds them with meat substitute instead of raw meat in ‘Udanpirappe’, which looks like a large bowl lacking both sausage and cream

It is telling that Udanpirappe has a jump cut right at the start, at the 13th-minute mark. The editing mishap comes out of nowhere and has a temple priest offering a ritual, murmuring something about the missing goddess idol and bringing ill-fortune to the village.

Apparently, it’s a cue. Cut to next, we see a motley group of women — planting seedlings — going berserk when they learn that Chinaayi aka Maathangi (Jyotika, who tries her best to keep the film afloat. There are lip-sync issues) is missing. They search in the pocket of marsh land and the news soon reaches her husband and brother.

Vairavan (Sasikumar) notices bubbles encircling the surface of the water and there emerges Maathangi, carrying the missing deity. Years of exposure to P Vasu, KS Ravikumar and the very recent Pandiaraj films have taught us that the rationale behind writing such a scene could mean only one thing: that Maathangi is the deity — at least for Vairavan. And she gets treated like one.