Meyaadha Maan

Director: Rathna Kumar
Cast: Vaibhav, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Induja

When I got to know that director Karthik Subbaraj was going to produce a film with a debutant in the director’s chair, I knew it was going to be a dark horse which will get onto the screens silently only to become a hit. Thie belief went multi folds when his production banner cropped up in the screen with the ever awesome Jigarthanda theme as its track. And now that I’ve seen the film, I’m glad that I am right.

Comedy, love failure, friendship and sister sentiments are nothing new to Tamil cinema. As a matter of fact, Kollywood once sat on its throne with these four genres as its legs. Meyaadha Maan rides high with only this and yet, thanks to having them in almost right proportions, the film works.

The biggest plus of the film is its subtle humour which doesn’t look forced anywhere. Scenes where Vaibhav goes on to sing the entrance music of WWE’s The Rock and how he answers to his crush’s upper-class mom when she questions his rustic behaviour, bring the roof down in laughter. But beneath are many a few social issues and stigmas such as class and caste are touched upon. Dialogues are a giant pillar of support for the film. Cliched lines such as “rekkai illatha devathai da ava” are followed up with dialogues such as “ava Aadhaar card le kooda azhaga irrupa da“.

The film also packs a solid cast. Vaibhav looks tailor-made for the role of Idhayam Murali, who, as the name suggests, is a guy who cannot go and express his love to a girl. Priya, who has been promoted to the big screens from the small ones look perfect as an urban upper-middle class girl. Induja is a lovely find and she’s a character that everyone with a sister could relate to. With quite a few films signed up as a heroine, she’s a talent to watch out for. Vivek Prasanna, who was seen in Vikram Vedha, gets an even bigger role here and he pulls it off neatly. Music by Santhosh Narayanan and singer turned composer Pradeep Kumar is top notch. The Thangachi song and the Address song are chartbusters already. The background score too is interesting.

On the other end of the spectrum, a few scenes, especially in the second half, are painfully long. A bit of quick editing could’ve made the film slicker. The climax seemed too filmy as till then, the movie was very realistic and relatable. But since the characters are strongly etched, one wouldn’t mind these missable flaws. Watch out for the pre-interval block that goes on for a good 10 minutes as a single shot without a cut.

Overall, Meyaadha Maan is a film that works predominantly well thanks to the character arcs and believable performances from a lovely cast and an impressive debutant director who was able to get the rest of them to give their best.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Click here to read my interview of Vaibhav for Meyaadha Maan. 

Click here to read my interview of director Ratna Kumar.