Synopsis
The film moves at a breakneck pace and given the dense world building, it often gives the impression that it is playing out at 1.5x speed (the editor is RS Sathish Kumar).
Cast & Crew
John GladyDirector, ActorByri Movie Review : Raw, rooted and chaotic, but crude performances are a let down
Critic's Rating: 3.0/5
Byri Movie Synospis:
Byri Movie Review: If one were to go by the popular notion that a good film should hook a viewer into its world within the first 10 minutes, then Byri does quite a bad job with it. For in its first half an hour, what we witness is chaos. Director John Glady drops us right into Aruguvilai, a small town in Nagercoil, where pigeon racing is a matter of pride for its hot-headed youngsters and adults. This often results in clashes between groups, and in the first few minutes, what we witness are these clashes. We do not know who these men are until we get the backstory in the form of a villupattu performance. And coupled with the Nagercoil slang, it is somewhat disorienting.
But once we get a hang of what's happening, the characters and their motivations, the film grips us. We see Rajalingam (Syed Majeed), a 26-year-old man, getting hooked into pigeon racing, and getting trained by his friend Amal (John Glady). We see how Lingam's mother (Viji Sekar), having seen her husband fall to the lure of pigeon racing, is desperate for her son to graduate by clearing his arrears and get a respectable job. We see how Lingam's enmity with William (Karthick Prasanna), a rival, spirals into a threatening situation where he earns the wrath of Suyambu (Vinu Lawrence), a rowdy-sheeter.
It is this world building that is the biggest strength of Byri, which has the rootedness of Vetri Maaran's Aadukalam and Vada Chennai (AV Vasantha Kumar's realistic visuals help here), a bunch of raw actors like in Angamaly Diaries, and the energy of City Of God. In fact, the director creates a multitude of characters and events that many a time, we feel that this is material that could have made for an engaging web series (the film does end with a lead to a sequel). The film moves at a breakneck pace and given the dense world building, it often gives the impression that it is playing out at 1.5x speed (the editor is RS Sathish Kumar).
If there is a weak link, it is the performances that are unpolished and strictly functional; they even lend a crude vibe to some of the scenes. But to John Glady's credit, narrative-wise, once the plot kicks in, he keeps building the tension and makes us anticipate when Lingam might do something rash, and later, worry about his fate and that of Amal. That we begin to look forward to the sequel and wonder how he's going to flesh plots and characters further is his success as a filmmaker.
Byri Movie Review: If one were to go by the popular notion that a good film should hook a viewer into its world within the first 10 minutes, then Byri does quite a bad job with it. For in its first half an hour, what we witness is chaos. Director John Glady drops us right into Aruguvilai, a small town in Nagercoil, where pigeon racing is a matter of pride for its hot-headed youngsters and adults. This often results in clashes between groups, and in the first few minutes, what we witness are these clashes. We do not know who these men are until we get the backstory in the form of a villupattu performance. And coupled with the Nagercoil slang, it is somewhat disorienting.
But once we get a hang of what's happening, the characters and their motivations, the film grips us. We see Rajalingam (Syed Majeed), a 26-year-old man, getting hooked into pigeon racing, and getting trained by his friend Amal (John Glady). We see how Lingam's mother (Viji Sekar), having seen her husband fall to the lure of pigeon racing, is desperate for her son to graduate by clearing his arrears and get a respectable job. We see how Lingam's enmity with William (Karthick Prasanna), a rival, spirals into a threatening situation where he earns the wrath of Suyambu (Vinu Lawrence), a rowdy-sheeter.
It is this world building that is the biggest strength of Byri, which has the rootedness of Vetri Maaran's Aadukalam and Vada Chennai (AV Vasantha Kumar's realistic visuals help here), a bunch of raw actors like in Angamaly Diaries, and the energy of City Of God. In fact, the director creates a multitude of characters and events that many a time, we feel that this is material that could have made for an engaging web series (the film does end with a lead to a sequel). The film moves at a breakneck pace and given the dense world building, it often gives the impression that it is playing out at 1.5x speed (the editor is RS Sathish Kumar).
If there is a weak link, it is the performances that are unpolished and strictly functional; they even lend a crude vibe to some of the scenes. But to John Glady's credit, narrative-wise, once the plot kicks in, he keeps building the tension and makes us anticipate when Lingam might do something rash, and later, worry about his fate and that of Amal. That we begin to look forward to the sequel and wonder how he's going to flesh plots and characters further is his success as a filmmaker.
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0/5