Why “Meyaadha Maan” deserves more attention than what it actually gets? | Meyaadha Maan – Movie Analysis

Meyaadha Maan starring Vaibhav, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Vivek Prasanna and directed by Ratna Kumar released on this Diwali along with mighty Mersal and before analyzing/reviewing or whatever you want to call this, we will just ask ourselves something.

\”What makes a good movie?\”

What makes a movie worth watching for 120 to 140 minutes, in our limited lives?

As a personal opinion, I feel a good movie is something that takes you inside, makes you get connected to the story, happenings, the characters, etc. 

Every movie-maker and every movie, has its own technique for achieving this, take Avengers or Dark Knight Trilogy, VFX and the interesting characters make you long to be part of them and gets you engrossed. Take Sivaji or Indian or Mudhalvan, it kindles the fire within you and gets you all pumped up after the movie ends.

Rathna Kumar achieves the very same thing easily with a screenplay that is too simple and highly relatable and characters that are a reflection of ourselves. The director is also lucky to have got performers who have transformed themselves into the characters and technicians who brought the director\’s vision perfectly before our eyes.

Story and screenplay:

Before diving into the details, let\’s talk about the story. 

A very simple boy loves a girl. The girl doesn\’t even know about it. She is engaged. What happens next?

What will happen next is every Tamil cinema viewer knows better. Right from Kadhal Mannan to Minnale, we have seen a lot of similar lines, but, the screenplay is where Rathna Kumar makes his mark. 

Instead of making the story, a love-filled emotional movie, the director turns the story into a fun-filled roller-coaster ride that anyone of any age can enjoy and I have to accept, in the second half, for more than 30 minutes continuously I was grinning like an idiot.

Despite being a light-hearted movie, the makers never failed to infuse social differences and casteism in a right way and hats off to that too.

The Performers:

Vaibhav was heavily underused in his initial movies but his talents were hinted in Goa/Chennai 28 Part 2 but, Rathna Kumar has brought the best from the actor and be it drunken stutters to apologetic lover in pre-interval scene to climax monologue, Vaibhav has improved a lot and Meyaadha Maan has made him an actor to watch out for.

Vivek Prasanna was a struggling actor despite his potential and Vikram Vedha and Sethupathy both showed only a shade of his potential and in this movie, he turned out to be the best of the lot by showing a variety of emotions. In particular, the scene where Sudar pushes him and hurts him with her words, the maturity Vivek shows will remain in your memory for some time. We hope the actor gets a lot of projects that use his skills opposed to becoming a cliched villain.

Priya Bhavani Shankar. My God. I must admit I have been a huge fan of her during her Puthiya Thalaimurai days. But, her stint in early days of Kalyanam Mudhal Kadhal Varai dropped me a bit down as it was evident she was a struggling actor and not someone with born skills. But, despite my prejudice, I was amazed to see the way she has transformed in Meyaadha Maan. Tamil cinema lacks such heroines who can act & emote and still look beautiful even when crying/anger. The phone call scene under the bed covers was too cute and it would have earned her too many fans than she already had. 

Indhuja is a revelation and we couldn\’t stop but wonder how Tamil cinema missed her for a long time. Her dance in Thangachi song and her anger and disbelief towards Vinoth (Vivek) and the climax phone-call showed us how good an actress she can be and rightly used, she could fill the gap left by many yesteryear actors. 

Music:

I initially thought of including Music along with other technical aspects of the movie but, something made me feel, along with the screenplay and powerful performances, Meyaadha Maan stands tall in the heart because of its music too.

Despite having signature tunes of Santhosh Narayanan at some places, Pradeep Kumar and Santhosh has done a fantabulous job of making the audience fall in love and smile along with the characters and when few songs linger in our heart even now, BGM deserves equal appreciation.
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Technical aspects:

Despite being a very small-budget movie, the movie never lacked in the technical quality. We feel the director behind Pizza, which was shot mostly in a single house, should have had a hand behind this. 

Both editing and cinematography made sure we aren\’t bored and at the same time, we are seeing best of North Chennai in the best way possible. 

Kudos Shafique (Editot) and Vidhu (DoP)

Our Verdict:

Despite few cliches and scenes we have become used too, Meyaadha Maan stays in our heart as a complete package which made the audience come out of the theatres with a smile on their faces and not because of Santhanam type jokes or horror-comedies, but a feel-good movie which anyone can relate too.

In case, it wasn\’t released along with Mersal and dominated by Vijay\’s mighty screen presence and all the buzzing publicity around Mersal, Meyaadha Maan would have been celebrated in a bigger way.

Because, in its own way, Meyaadha Maan remains the best movie in 2017 and as a movie worth spending 140 minutes.