Meyaadha Maan Tamil Movie
Another short filmmaker has entered the mainstream arena with Meyaadha Maan ('MM' hereafter). Director Rathinakumar who managed to grab some eyeballs with his short film 'Madhu' has made his debut by expanding the short film to suit the mainstream sensibilities.
Who better can launch such efforts than the poster boy of the short film circuit, Karthik Subbaraj? He too has rolled out his production house 'Stonebench Productions' with MM. Though he has released a collection of shortfilms into two featurettes, this would be his maiden production for a feature-length film. Let's see how well the synergy between these young and enthusiastic filmmakers have worked out.
The entire movie is about (Idhayam) Murali (Vaibhav) and his one-sided love for Madhu (Priya Bhavani Shankar), his college crush. His routine is to booze and wail over the phone to his friends about his plight and his unproposed love (that's why 'Idhayam Murali'). Meanwhile, his friend Vinoth's (Vivek Prasanna) attempt at saving Murali from his misery by approaching Madhu, works to some extent and keep things calm. Then after a series of events Madhu and Murali fall in love and then break up. Did they unite at the end?
A one-sided affair and the guy spending half the time boozing and wailing may sound too cliched on paper. But, with this wafer-thin line, Rathinakumar has managed to kindle interest in the movie by playing with the narrative elements, mainly, screenplay and dialogues that were doused with some wry humour. The movie's promotions have carefully positioned the sort of content that would be delivered as part of the overall package.
Dubbed as "Royapurathu La La Land" in its promo posters, it deftly makes a statement that might equate to 'enga area ulla varaatha' - don't enter our territory - so the target audience is fixed - youngsters who love characters bashing up rules and norms (on screen). It further takes a dig at Christian evangelists and upper cast rhetorics in a funny way.
The movie had some genuinely funny moments aided by dialogues like "Aadhar attaila kooda ava azhaga theriva". Also in one of the shots, I was able to spot cow dung in the shape of a heart in the background - it shows that the director had his broader vision at play throughout.
Though the leading man in the movie is depicted as a lead singer with a whacky orchestra, why should he sing and dance most of the time? Especially the second half was filled with too many songs, where a couple of them could have been easily chopped - for e.g. the 'address song' which is the official 'sarakku song' for this movie. Also, the movie's climax was a bit of a drag.
The portions between Sudar (Induja) and Vinoth were convincing, mainly due to their superb performances, but I keep wondering how is it relevant to Murali's romance, which forms the epicentre of the movie.
Songs by Santhosh Narayanan and Pradeep have already kept the charts burning. My picks would be 'Enna naan seiven' and 'Thangachi song'. Other technicalities kept the proceedings neat and tidy.
One could make out the pangs undergone by the director while attempting to expand a short film into a feature. He has put in a lot of effort in coming up with portions like the one where Murali meets Madhu at his friend's reception and another one where Vinoth chances upon Madhu and she collapses. These were a few weak links in the narrative that exposes the amateur in Rathnakumar. However, the sister character (played by Induja) was a brilliant one.
Overall, this movie is a one-time watch for its wacky content and a fantastic performance from Vivek Prasanna, who hinges and spins the proceedings into a frenzy with his subtle timing, body language and dialogue delivery. Congrats to Rathnakumar, who has firmly pitched his maiden story in a safe and cliched territory - love and sarakku. Expecting him to take on a variety of genres in his future projects!
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