‘Maamanithan’ movie assessment: Vijay Sethupathi, Gayathrie attempt their greatest to avoid wasting this easy melodrama from sinking

Seenu Ramasamy’s heroes aren’t atypical however extraordinary. They’re extraordinary to the proportion that they’re, in actual fact, superheroes. However in contrast to your common superheroes, Seenu Ramasamy’s heroes draw their superpower from their virtuousness and goodwill gestures. In a way, they don’t seem to be simply kind-hearted however have the center of gold. So, it’s only pure that Seenu Ramasamy’s screenplays are gold-plated minus the seikuli (labour) and setharam (collateral harm).

However the true harm in writing such good tales is, it turns into a tad simplistic and generic after some extent. That is each a great and dangerous factor in Maamanithan. You revel within the simplicity of the plot and heave a sigh of reduction for the existence of such plain tales, till your prayers go unanswered.

Maamanithan is an easy story of a easy father Radhakrishnan (Vijay Sethupathi) and his easy spouse Savithri (Gayathrie in one more function the place she has to undergo. Please, can we’ve got higher characters written for her?) and his easy youngsters. It’s exhausting to guess the movie’s timeline however going by the wallposters, it seems like Maamanithan is about within the Nineteen Nineties — how applicable, you would possibly marvel. For, it has the vibe and emotion of V Sekhar’s movies from the identical period.

Vijay Sethupathi as Radhakrishnan takes satisfaction in being the primary auto driver in his city Pannaipuram, the hometown of music legend Ilaiyaraaja, who has composed for the movie alongside together with his son, Yuvan Shankar Raja. Within the opening portion, we see Radhakrishnan together with his children and their routine: they take a experience within the auto, cease by at a tea store owned by Ismaiel (Guru Somasundaram) to have eggs and purchase freshwater fish.

There’s a lovely scene the place the daddy tells the children that at any time when they undergo a tough time in life, they should take a run. As a result of working, apparently, makes the thoughts contemporary and offers you readability to suppose. What a boring piece of recommendation, you would possibly suppose. However what Radhakrishnan says echoes right into a plot level within the second half, the place the roles get reversed and the daughter tells the daddy to run. This little second within the opening portion supplies the drama for the second half, the place Radhakrishnan is on the run. And he’s working all by his life, carrying the burden on his shoulder.

Maamanithan runs for over two hours. It’s among the many shorter movies Seenu Ramasamy has made; the shorter runtime will be attributed to not having sufficient materials. The primary half is the place the movie’s most pleasurable. There’s a story-within-story once we come to know Radhakrishnan and Savithri’s cut-short love story. It’s a bedtime story that the daddy tells his daughter however one thing about this acquainted story makes you cheerful, regardless that the style by which they get married just isn’t precisely extraordinary.

However the movie shifts gears in the course of the interval level to turn out to be a melodrama. No matter little pleasures that you simply to this point loved in Maamanithan get weaker within the second half. By the point the movie ends, you are feeling it’s incomplete. One’s unsure if it was because of finances points, however regardless of the case, Maamanithan ends abruptly with none form of payoff.

There’s a thread within the second half that saved me considering. Radhakrishnan has left city to take refuge someplace in Kerala, the place he meets a widow and her daughter. For a few years, he continues to stay away from his household, although he continues to supply them monetary assist. In one other movie, one other filmmaker may need felt tempted to point out some form of emotions that Radhakrishnan might have developed for the widow and her daughter. However Seenu Ramasamy’s movies aren’t about manithans however maamanithans — when Ismaiel warns Radhakrishnan about sparrows constructing nests in his newly-built home that he locks up, the latter says, “It’s okay. At the very least they’ve a home, no.”

In my Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhalassessment, I had written this about Vijay Sethupathi: “One thing must be mentioned about Vijay Sethupathi and the astonishing capacity he possesses to stay honest to the character he performs. Simply be careful for him ultimately when somebody asks how he may love two girls on the similar time. Vijay offers a lame rationalization utilizing the movie’s title. However one thing about his voice, the way in which he says it, makes you really feel it comes from the center. He makes you consider.” This holds true for Maamanithan too .

Simply watch the person when he will get a meet-cute scene with Savithri or when he bursts out in anger at his to-be brother-in-law. Vijay Sethupathi makes it look real. Maamanithan is that script the place each Sethupathi and Gayathrie do extra for the movie than what it does to them.

Maamanithan is at present working in theatres.