Anthony Bhagyaraj's "Siren" stars Jayam Ravi as a murder-convict visiting his family on Parole, during when a string of murders begin to happen. Suspicion falls on him and we start to learn more about his past, and his connection to the murders.
It's a pretty decent premise honestly, as it has the bones with which you could craft a compelling movie, but the way it has been handled here is just terrible. The screenplay and the direction all come across extremely amateur and without any focus. The movie is structurally a mess, where the first half has hints of the hero's past; through which we can already piece together most of what might have happened. And when the flashback does eventually roll around (extremely late into the movie too), it feels pointless and adds nothing that we didn't already figure out, and we're left sitting around waiting for it to end. Same goes for the various sub-plots introduced; that with Keerthi Suresh and the character of Ravi's daughter. None of them lead anywhere and to the extent it tries, it feels incredibly rushed. The final 45 minutes of the movie are pure idiocy. Some of the worst irrational decisions ever made on screen, right there in front of you. It's as if the movie ran out of ideas and just went with the first thing they could think of.
But it's not like the movie is without its positives, as it is quite entertaining thanks to the premise, and the tension and suspense is handled rather well. The movie definitely had potential, but unfortunately the best it wanted to settle with was sub-par writing and mindless directing.
