Maamannan

Maamanan A review by Rajesh Puvvada

Mari Selvraj once again paints caste based strokes on a culturally stigmatic canvas!! After pariyerumal and Karnan, he used the same starting ritual, which is to have a hound killed or slaughtered!! This time it got a little predictable.

Casting Vadivelu as the protagonist in a realistic appearance gives great strength to this movie. After a long hiatus, we could witness a larger screen presence of this seasoned actor. I enjoyed every bit of his performance largely. The maturity in which he handles his character tells us how strongly he lived into it.

At the very beginning of the movie when the titles were coming up there was a huge applause when the name of Fahad Fazil came up. He definitely raised the bar of his own best performance. Every move if his was unique and natural.

I am not going to mention any one from the caste because their roles or performances were not pivotal or palpable.

Years of stigma around the lower and higher castes dominate our rich social fabric and that is well brought out in this movie. Honestly, the true value of this movie was delivered right at the time of intermission. What ever came out from Mark Selvraj after the interval had lesser value plot wise. The plot got diluted into a political portion that stinks. However the end state was very well handled. Many directors these days suffer to handle the crispness of a fine plot for a longer duration. Presenting something solid for a longer duration requires great degree of detail and an emotional grip. The way Mari Selavaraj held our emotions firm around Pariyerum Perumal and Karnan is felt well because he did not hold it well in this movie. Especially in the second half.

Red giant wanted a platform to put its political agenda forward and the second half was a gift to red giant by Mari Selvraj.

A R Rehamans score jelled well with the movie but I think, no tune or a BGM or a song is playing repeatedly in my head after watching the movie. Which means the musical manifest of this movie evaporated very quickly.

Given the movie did not employ any illogical parts this movie holds water on a thin paper cup. Without the protagonist and the antagonist performances the movie would have lost its worth.

I recommend a one time viewing with family. And, I am going with a 7.5/10. You can also wait for it to come on OTT.

Maamannan started off with commendable first half followed by average second half . Plot and its depth in first half with character establishment was on the spot , especially interval block was total banger and literal high point of the whole movie . Second half mostly lacked in depth & high point and literally failed to create impact as first half did . In fact if we saw previous works of Mari Selvaraj climax portion or post climax create great impact upon audience , but here he missed that trick . Vadivelu just nailed it in his performance , real comeback of this man but totally in different Avatar . Fahad Faasil as antagonist was different vibe , even though if he plays simple villain role he somehow maintain the tension around his character . Udhay and Keerthi did their job well . Asusual Mari Selvaraj as director did great in his crafting , on other side well supported by Theni Eswar's camera work . AR Rahman once again delivered mind blowing background scores and songs .

Overall , despite some flaws and let down in second half its totally worth and watchable flick . Keep your expectations down .

These days it's becoming easy to guess a Tamil movie's plot and you can easily guess the central theme of this movie. At times the movie gets slow-paced and I fast-forwarded many portions.

Fahad Fazil is cracking all the roles he is getting and he was the main highlight of this movie. He played the antagonist role nicely. Moreover, it's time to recognize the talent of Vadivelu. He has been typecast for a long time and it's time to give him some serious roles, just like Mollywood did for Suraj Venjaramood. Mari Selvaraj proves that he can do movies like Maamannan and I hope we will get more cool movies from him in the future.

The Movie starts on an engaging first half but falls fully flat in the second half. Honestly, the last half an hour of the movie was so slow and UNBEARABLE!

Performance: Fahadh Faasil was brilliant as always, he is a shapeshifter who aces literally every role he plays. He incredibly played the evil role he was offered. Vadivel was good too, the rest others were average.

Plot and screenplay: The start of the film was very engaging and the plot was being built up pretty well, especially the flashback part.

The director was able to hold the movie in place till the interval.

The second half was incredibly boring and unbearable, it was such a task to control my urge to take out my phone and scroll through Instagram! But I somehow managed to complete the movie with an utter nonsense 2nd half.

I regret not taking my phone out and spending my time watching a few reels. It did not feel that the same director had directed the 2nd half. I was so done after it.

Conclusion and Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐-6/10

I'm rating it a 6 only for its first half as it was a good watch with an engaging screenplay and the performance of FAFA and Vadivelu.

The second half was absolute garbage.

Mari Selvaraj is refining his stance on caste politics through his movies. Karnan and Maamannan did not come close to Pariyerum Perumal in regards to the number of days the movie stayed with me after the watch. However, from a scale perspective, the later movies are much bigger and impressive from a grandeur standpoint.

Fahad Fazil is back! Very much a director's actor, Mari has utilized the actor very well for a very convincing portrayal of the upper caste protagonist.

A R Rahman did great work in the movie. Unlike Malaykunju where Rahman's symphonies were not aligning with the rustic backdrop, Rahman has been able to align his work with the movie very well on this one. Some of the songs are very touching. Background music is the king in many scenes.

Great dialogue less aura from Udhayanidhi Stalin, seasoned performance from Vadivelu.

First half script and delivery was top notch. Lot of action (and violence) with matching background scores bring out the stance/spirit/emotion that the movie is taking.

Feels like Mari is deeply bothered by the caste based injustices, and is trying to discover and present his perspectives through his movies.