Maheshum Maruthiyum Malayalam Movie
Maheshum Marutiyum is a love story, but not the usual kind we see in Indian cinema. It is a love story between a man and his car. Mahesh's father Padmanabhan, played by Maniyanpilla Raju, becomes the first person in Cheruthoni to receive a Maruti 800 car. There is more to the historical significance of the car. Maniyanpilla Raju's character receives the car from none other than then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Years later, a grown-up Mahesh (Asif Ali) becomes so attached to the car that he starts 'speaking' to the vehicle. It is not like the car honks on itself to 'speak' back to Mahesh, but this is a love story. Mahesh knows his Maruti will not leave him. Writer-director Sethu uses a couple of metaphorical scenarios to underline this bond between the car and its owner.
The plot becomes a bit more interesting when Mahesh's childhood lover Gauri (Mamta Mohandas) comes back into his life. The rest of the film is about whether or not Mahesh's affection for the Maruti will prevail over his love life.
Maheshum Marutiyum is not the first Malayalam film to use a vehicle as one of the central characters. For instance, Thaha's "Ee Parakkum Thalika" has a bus as a central character and talks about the sacrifices the protagonist makes to keep hold of the vehicle. It is interesting how some of the plot points of both films are similar, even though they seem to be different works emotionally. Like the Dileep character from Thaha's film, Mahesh makes a lot of sacrifices to keep his beloved vehicle as a souvenir. The film questions whether it is worth making such sacrifices at the expense of one's own life.
At an emotional level, Maheshum Marutiyum is more of a companion piece to Anand Menon's "Gauthamante Radham". It is easy on the eye and has a fairly simplistic plot with modest ambitions. The problems of the protagonist often come with easy resolutions. Therefore, his struggles do not seem strong enough to make the grand arc work better. It only works at the plot level. In fact, many things work better on paper than in terms of execution here, including an interesting plot twist.
On the plus side, Sethu avoids some of the usual trappings of such a commercial film. At least as ideas, the portions in the climax are interesting, even though they are a bit rushed through. Some of the performances are quite good. Asif Ali plays the good-natured Mahesh with relative ease. It is a departure from some of the actor's more intense films from the recent past. Mamta Mohandas is utterly convincing as a Delhi-settled Malayali girl with very little emotional connection to her hometown. Together, the actors are a joy to watch.
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