Review: The plot of director Zac Harris's Yugi had all potential to evolve as a successful investigative suspense thriller if the writer of the film would have narrated the tale incorporating pulsating sequences. While certain revelations and the proceedings made toward the tale's end are quite interesting, there are barely any scenes that could pull us to the edge of our seats. The film's core revolves around the life and the plight of a young couple, who becomes the victim of power and economic exploitation.

Yugi starts off with a popular actor, John Vijay, being shot dead by an unknown person. A few minutes into the film we are introduced to four important characters - that a detective (Narain), a henchman (Natty), a retired police officer (Purushothaman), and a sub-Inspector (Kathir). All these characters are connected by one common motive - that of finding a missing girl - Karthika (Anandhi). As detective Nandakumar (Narain) along with SI Rajkumar (Kathir) and Shalini (Athmeeya) gets closer to the mystery behind the missing case, the suicide of a lady doctor and revelations made by a hospital nurse unravels shocking episodes that happened in Karthika's life.

Who Karthika is and what actually happened to her form the rest of the essence of the story.

In most investigative thrillers, the needle of suspicion keeps moving from one person to another to keep the audience enthralled. This film, too, follows the same pattern with an unexpected twist towards the climax. However, it wasn't gripping enough as the narrative was too flat and clumpy. Karthika's tale is the heart of the film as the entire first half is about her being searched by the biggies. However, halfway down the film, the writer reveals Karthika's story in one go without letting us empathise with her character. If Karthika's story had been revealed in parts as and when the investigation progresses, it would have surely created an impact. The film also touches upon surrogacy and how people are being exploited.

Though Kathir doesn't have much scope in the first half, his character gets stronger as the film progresses. He has performed really well in the pre-climax sequences. Pavithra Lakshmi did a decent job and made justice to the role that was given to her. Anandhi's performance as Karthika is quite intense and something to watch out for. Natty's performance as Sethu was interesting enough to hold the audience throughout. The background score really helped to elevate certain moments which would have otherwise been flat. The technical aspects of the film were quite decent and everyone did their part well.

In a nutshell, though Yugi is interesting in bits and pieces fails to be enthralling as a whole.