Maamanithan movie review: A surprisingly good movie about what makes a man great-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Language: Tamil

Final yr, Vijay Sethupathi starred in Laabam the place each scene regarded like an excuse to cram our heads with data. It was a social science class that I wasn’t fascinated with. I used to be afraid an identical destiny would fall upon Maamanithan, as properly. Within the opening scene of this Sethupathi starrer, his character, Radhakrishnan, teaches his youngsters (a son and a daughter) the significance of operating. He tells them that operating frees them. However his piece of recommendation comes out of nowhere, and, therefore, I didn’t suppose it will serve any objective apart from depicting the bond between a father and his children.

Nonetheless, Radhakrishnan runs someday later. It’s not the sort of operating that assessments his stamina, although. He runs away – from his household to seek out one other shelter. Maamanithan is surprisingly sincere. It doesn’t beat across the bush and tells a pleasant story straight from the center. Within the scene the place Radhakrishnan talks about operating, there are some dialogues about consuming fish, as properly.

The daughter asks if it’s fallacious to kill one thing with a purpose to eat it, and the daddy says he doesn’t have a solution to that. He doesn’t give you something sensible on the spot. However they go house and fortunately gorge on fish curry anyway. This perspective of his turns out to be useful in direction of the tip when he’s requested by a younger sage if he is aware of the that means of Advaitism. It’s a standout scene that deserves applause for the best way Sethupathi delivers his line. He says he solely is aware of learn how to cease hiccups and walks out of the restaurant, leaving his questioner dumbfounded.

There’s no vanity in his physique language. And he doesn’t flip round to punctuate his punch line with a interval. Nonetheless, it’s comedy gold. Alas, it’s additionally the one place the place I laughed out loud. Now, let’s get again to the start. Radhakrishnan is an auto driver who desires his children to talk English. With the cash he makes from driving round, although, he received’t be capable to enroll them in a greater faculty. His important dream is to get them educated. And for that, he takes up one other job that he’s naturally good at.

Even when Savithri (Gayathrie), his spouse, warns him concerning the perils of creating a fast buck, he doesn’t take heed to her. His intention is linked straight to creating his children attain the highest. And schooling, he actually believes, will get them there. He’s positively proper about that as a result of it’s an antidote. What he doesn’t get proper, nonetheless, is the way wherein he trusts one and all. When he lastly lands in hassle, he runs away, because it’s the best possibility that he can put his palms on.

Maamanithan doesn’t put on its coat on the shoulders of a thriller. There aren’t any surprising revelations that tumble out of the closet within the third act, though you’ll get one in case you sit by the film. However that’s not essentially the most fascinating side right here. Author-director Seenu Ramasamy appears to prod on the sentiments that make us who we’re. The title, which interprets to a terrific man, is clearly associated to the protagonist’s soul.

We get to grasp Radhakrishnan’s greatness because the film progresses. What’s greatness, by the best way? Doesn’t it depend upon what one does in a given scenario? What will we do when push involves shove? Savithri can be nice if you concentrate on it. She raises her children in the identical village the place her husband will get badmouthed day in and time out. Doesn’t she sacrifice her sanity in a manner? However Ramasamy solely offers us glimpses of the insults she faces and never the triumphs she embraces.

Maamanithan would have been a distinct movie if the digital camera’s gaze had adopted Savithri. Each of them endure, however the filmmaker makes us sympathize principally with Radhakrishnan’s issues.

Then once more, it is a drama that brings collectively folks from totally different religions. Radhakrishnan’s greatest pal is a Muslim. And the lady he befriends in Kerala, the place he finds a roof over his head, is a Christian. Though there are non secular symbols in every single place, variations don’t crop up anyplace. Ramasamy desires us to know that folks of all faiths can dwell peacefully. It is a matter that has been handled extensively – and hilariously – within the current Telugu launch, Ante Sundaraniki, as properly.

In that Telugu film, the castes and faiths are talked about and lugged round, whereas, in Maamanithan, they merely grow to be part of the wallpaper.

The brand new troubles for Sethupathi and Gayathrie are a far cry from those they encountered in Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012). Within the decade that has handed since then, they’ve grown as actors individually, and as an on-screen couple that we are able to all bathe our love upon.

Maamanithan is enjoying in cinemas.

Karthik Keramalu is a author. His works have been revealed in The Bombay Evaluate, The Quint, Deccan Herald and Movie Companion, amongst others. 

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