Mudhalvan

The movie revolves around Pugazhendi, a journalist who gets a chance to become one day CM of Tamilnadu. What happens next forms the crux of the story. Arjun as Pugazhendi and Raghuvaran as Aranganathan were apt. Manisha Koirala doesn't have much job. Other character artists like Manivannan, Vadivelu did thier job pretty well. Shankar's story and screenplay are totally lit. Coming to the technicalities, Production value, set designs, fight choreography, CGI were totally great (at that time). Music by A. R. Rahman is a highlight. The movie runs for around 3 hours, but you never feel lag. Shankar succeeds in giving a commercial movie with some social message. Highly recommended movie!

The movie has its usual cinematic moments. But, the message comes from the heartfelt anguish. The happenings in the country currently attest to this fact and instead of just pointing out the problems, this attempts to point out some of the solutions as well. Very commendable.

The movie was excellent. Songs and BGM in the movie were also fantastic. One of the best movie of Arjun and Shankar. The movie was very interesting. The movie was not at all boring. Everybody acted very well in the movie mainly Raghuvaran.

One of the earlier Shankar thrillers and also one of his better ones. This movie is under-rated on IMDb. The popularity of this movie is reflected by the fact that it forms the basis for Shankar's latest movie, Anniyan, which isn't nearly as good as Mudhalvan. Not only is the movie thought provoking but also sheer fun to experience. Thats how all movies should be and thats what makes Shankar so special. Even though Raghuveran is a familiar face, he plays his role as the villain very convincingly. Manisha was however, pretty pointless and added just for the sake of having a romantic angle in the film. Arjun is the only actor whom Shankar has cast two times and this is without doubt, his best movie and performance ever besides gentleman. Each of Shankar's movies usually has a unique hero or first timer.

If I had'nt seen this movie before seeing the same director's Indian/Hindustani which had released 3 years earlier, I may not have been so very impressed. While Mudhalvan represents an excellent movie by itself, the director had already produced a movie which was simply much bigger and better, earlier, which thus takes expectations a bit higher.

One of the subjects handled in Mudhalvan, namely caste-based politics and vote banks, is very important. If it were'nt for the running time, I think that the same subject should have been explored further. I also did'nt appreciate Arjun in the movie, reducing the caste nos to 4, instead of eliminating caste based reservation in totality? I guess caste based politics have a hand even in movies. See some vijaykanth movies if you want more on that subject.

This movie is without a shadow of a doubt, Arjun's best performance in his career. While it may not be Shankar's best, it is again without doubt, one of Shankar's better movies and a must watch.