Maragadha Naanayam Tamil Movie
A treasure hunt movie in Tamil is certainly not novel. We've seen so many in the past. Usually, the race would be between the good and the bad group of men and women.
Such movies will invariably involve a journey that gets triggered every now and then by a trail of breadcrumbs (twists/clues) that get retrofitted at various points to the screenplay. The movie's selling points would heavily lean on the sort of treasure being chased, characters involved and how interesting or adventurous the journey turns out.
'Marakatha Naanayam' starts off things with the titular significance of the coin in contention. The backstory was quick and then the characters were paraded with decent pace, and that includes the lead pair.
Aadhi, who tries his hand at 'petty' smuggling with his friend wants to crack something big and settle down once in for all. He is given a chance to pull off a heist. He has to get the dangerous and priceless maragatha naanayam without invoking the fury of its guardian, a historic Pallava king, as anyone who comes in contact with the coin gets butchered at the hands of the king's spirit. How does Aadhi try to pull things off?
More than the treasure, the process of hunting it was more significant, and that's the way it is meant to be. The screenplay which was written with 'spoof' written all over it was intelligent and employed certain interesting mechanisms to ponder into the horror genre - yes, there were ghosts involved, but I can't reveal any further.
Aadhi as the leading man was an apt fit for the role that hardly threw any challenges at him. It was purely run-of-the-mill. However, Nikki Galrani's bubbly nature was leveraged in a very innovative way (go watch it for yourself).
'Munishkanth' Ramdoss is certainly becoming a more acceptable caricature among the breed of contemporary clowns. He is able to pull off a dual character as that of a comedian and a character artist. Anandaraj as the quirky baddie reminds me of his role in 'Mundasupatti', but his character augured well for the movie's mood.
The movie never fails to tick the fantasy checkboxes as and when needed. Of course, the logic took a beating, but it was largely saved with wit and slapstick in equal proportions. Thankfully the movie just had a title song that was played in the background and none other than that. That certainly has worked in favour of the movie by making the narration appear neat and crisp.
The movie certainly doesn't try anything new. It was a potpourri and mashup of various genres - fantasy, horror, action and comedy - that took a dig at some of the tried and tested cliches of Kollywood. Some worked and some didn't. But overall, this was an above average flick that allows you to have a hearty laugh without worrying too much about the story and its logic. Well done debutant ARK Saravan and team!
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