{"id":7248,"date":"2016-05-27T18:07:06","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T12:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248"},"modified":"2016-05-27T18:07:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T12:37:06","slug":"irul-review-a-thriller-that-wonders-what-makes-writers-and-criminals-tick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7248","title":{"rendered":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<span class=\"dropcap\">N<\/span>aseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s <em>Irul<\/em> is a perfect anti-date movie that will hopefully convince couples to stay indoors and not head out during the still ongoing pandemic. It is also a warning to not date writers.\n\nThe Malayalam-language Netflix film follows lawyer Archana (Darshana Rajendran) and her writer boyfriend Alex (Soubin Shahir), who drive away from the city during the weekend. Because Archana\u2019s work calls come in the way of Alex\u2019s romantic endeavours, and the rest of the Sunil Yadav-scripted thriller has to be set up, Alex has ensured they have not brought their cellphones along.\n\nIt is dark and raining when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Archana and Alex head to the nearest house in search of a phone. The house belongs to a mysterious man who calls himself Unni (Fahadh Faasil). Unni\u2019s house is as gothic as it gets. Stacked wood bookshelves reach the ceiling. Candles abound. Medieval figurines lurk behind shadows. There\u2019s a painting of a dead mother.\n\nUnni, himself, dressed in a silk gown snarls and hisses with his cryptic manner of speaking. Alex has written only one novel, Irul, which is based on a real killer of five women. Six, Unni says, before correcting himself. Unni is one of the few people who has read Alex\u2019s novel and drives the conversation towards speculating what could drive a man to kill women.\n\nCoincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>Alex (Soubin Shahir) has written only one novel, <em>Irul<\/em>, which is based on a real killer of five women<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nShahir is superb as the neurotic writer Alex, insecure and vulnerable, for reasons which can perhaps only be ascribed to his writerly ways. Alex\u2019s jagged temperament is contrasted with Unni\u2019s feline unpredictability until a twist in the middle posits the mysterious host as a shifty crook, much like Faasil\u2019s character in <em>Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum<\/em> (2017), which won him a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.\n\nRajendran\u2019s Archana is caught between the mind games played by these two men. If she escapes the night alive, she is surely going to be off Tinder for a long time. As the audience stand-in, Rajendran communicates Archana\u2019s confusion and frustration reliably well. But Archana\u2019s reluctance to bolt out of the house, in the face of increasingly morbid circumstances, is perplexing.\n\nThe ability to heavily suspend disbelief is key to enjoying the crisply-directed Irul.\n\nA spectacular opening sequence juxtaposes Alex and Archana\u2019s car ride into darkness with what\u2019s waiting in store for them. A bird\u2019s eye shot follows their car snaking its way through the mountains, much like the opening of Stanley Kubrick\u2019s <em>The Shining<\/em>. Thunder in the distance and Sreerag Saji\u2019s ominous score bridges this with close-ups of the darkly baroque interiors of the house Alex and Archana will soon find themselves in.\n\nThe film\u2019s best scene comes early. Alex, Unni, and Archana\u2019s back-and-forth discussion about what motivates a serial killer, and whether a writer can accurately represent their subject using only imagination instead of experience, unfolds over a long one-take shot.\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>The ability to heavily suspend disbelief is key to enjoying the crisply-directed <em>Irul<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThis conversation is a rare thought-provoking moment in an otherwise lurid and pulpy movie. This stretch brings to mind actual crime writers who turned out to be killers. There\u2019s the Canadian Blake Leibel, whose 2010 graphic novel <em>Syndrome<\/em> contained descriptions of how he went on to murder his girlfriend some years later. Chinese writer Liu Yongbiao earned fame writing fiction about unsolved murders, and was eventually arrested for murders in the past. Polish writer Krystian Bala\u2019s 2003 novel <em>Amok<\/em> contained clues of a murder he committed three years before. This became the basis of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2008\/02\/11\/true-crime\">2008 <em>New Yorker<\/em> article<\/a>, which was turned into the 2016 film <em>Dark Crimes<\/em>, starring Jim Carrey.\n\nInside this conversation lies the question of whether a writer can wing it in fiction without experiencing the subject personally \u2013 and whether research from second-hand sources is enough.\n\nThe supposed realism of the HBO series <em>The Wire<\/em>, which connects the failure of democratic institutions with crime in Black neighbourhoods in the American city of Baltimore, stems from its creator David Simon\u2019s experience as a crime journalist in the city. Ernest Hemingway\u2019s <em>A Farewell to Arms<\/em>, Hunter S Thompson\u2019s <em>Fear<\/em> and<em> Loathing in Las Vegas<\/em>, or Jack Kerouac\u2019s <em>On The Road<\/em>, derive their lived-in quality because of their writers\u2019 real experiences.\n\n<em>Irul<\/em>, however, is not a movie concerned with these matters. It\u2019s a yarn expertly spun by Sunil Yadav, and his Malayali co-writers, and Naseef Yusuf Izuddin. The anti-climactic end is not bothersome if one is willing to be taken for a ride by the plot. This is Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s directorial debut, and if one thing is certain, it\u2019s that he knows how to direct a thriller.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":7249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-27T12:37:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217-1024x573.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"573\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devarsi Ghosh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devarsi Ghosh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Devarsi Ghosh\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbe8b0872e63cd95fe102aef77e9376d\"},\"headline\":\"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-27T12:37:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248\"},\"wordCount\":853,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1617358217.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Pop Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248\",\"name\":\"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1617358217.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-27T12:37:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbe8b0872e63cd95fe102aef77e9376d\"},\"description\":\"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1617358217.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1617358217.png\",\"width\":1520,\"height\":850},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7248#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbe8b0872e63cd95fe102aef77e9376d\",\"name\":\"Devarsi Ghosh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cff5edbffb22c51ad5c0cc4a4e14333c3b738e5e519d14bdea74a3827aa89a19?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cff5edbffb22c51ad5c0cc4a4e14333c3b738e5e519d14bdea74a3827aa89a19?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cff5edbffb22c51ad5c0cc4a4e14333c3b738e5e519d14bdea74a3827aa89a19?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Devarsi Ghosh\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=433\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick","description":"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick","og_description":"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-05-27T12:37:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":573,"url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217-1024x573.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Devarsi Ghosh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick","twitter_description":"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Devarsi Ghosh","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248"},"author":{"name":"Devarsi Ghosh","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe8b0872e63cd95fe102aef77e9376d"},"headline":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick","datePublished":"2016-05-27T12:37:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248"},"wordCount":853,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217.png","articleSection":["Pop Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248","name":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217.png","datePublished":"2016-05-27T12:37:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe8b0872e63cd95fe102aef77e9376d"},"description":"Coincidences, contrivances, and corpses pile up in Naseef Yusuf Izuddin\u2019s 90-minute locked-room mystery Irul with a three-member cast. What keeps matters fresh and edge-of-your-seat are the splendid performances and assured filmmaking.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217.png","width":1520,"height":850},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7248#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Irul Review: A Thriller That Wonders What Makes Writers And Criminals Tick"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/bbe8b0872e63cd95fe102aef77e9376d","name":"Devarsi Ghosh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cff5edbffb22c51ad5c0cc4a4e14333c3b738e5e519d14bdea74a3827aa89a19?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cff5edbffb22c51ad5c0cc4a4e14333c3b738e5e519d14bdea74a3827aa89a19?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cff5edbffb22c51ad5c0cc4a4e14333c3b738e5e519d14bdea74a3827aa89a19?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Devarsi Ghosh"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=433"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1617358217.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}