AR Murugadoss made a revenge drama in the form of Ghajini that he made in Tamil
and then in Hindi. He then made another revenge drama in the form of Darbar that
starred Superstar Rajinikanth. His film 7aum Arivu was something different,
ambitious and unique that didn’t deliver commercial success as it was expected, nor
did his much ambitious Spyder with Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu. His weakest film
was with Salman Khan in the form of Sikandar that came out earlier this year. We
now have ’Madharasi’. This Tamil action-drama stars Sivakarthikeyan and Vidyut
Jammwal in lead roles.
Reeling from a breakup, a man with a tragic past becomes involved in an operation
to stop the mass distribution of weapons in this Tamil-language drama thriller. If you
have seen the trailer, there’s darkness, there are daring scenes, there are daring
characters, there are explosions, there are confrontations, and there’s blood. All of
this has been the trope and template in many films in Indian cinema, and filmmakers
and actors keep coming back to these tropes and templates.
AR Murugadoss as a filmmaker has been largely out of his depth in most of his
directorial works since the commercial and critical success of Thalapathy Vijay
starrer, “Katthi’ but with Madharasi, he almost gets his groove back.
This is because he’s coming from a film that failed both critically and commercially in
‘Sikandar’ and exepctations from him teaming up with SK were minimal and the pre
build up to this movie was also sub-par; probably going by how massive promotions
havent really helped in this year with ‘Thug Life’ and ‘Coolie’ being major letdowns
this year after such sky high hype.
The best thing about ARMs new film is how he gets the flavour and essence right.
How he gets the milieu right even when the story has nothing new to say.This does
give you vibes of his iconic success; ‘Ghajini; in terms of characterization if the hero
and the general way of how the movie unfolds, although this SK starrer lacks that
writing depth for sure.
Something illegal is happening and there’s only one man who can stop that. Then
there’s Vidyut Jammwal, whose agility and gifted athleticism are put to good use by
Murugadoss who has worked with the actor before. And the leading man
Sivakarthikeyan also puts his brooding aura to good use to create an impression of
that ‘If you mess with me, I’ll make your life hell’ attitude.
All in all, Madharasi is much more than just watchable purely because it’s coming
after a string of disappointments by the filmmaker. Had this come out when he was at
his peak, it may have stuck like a sore thumb.
Raghav’s Final Take
Madharasi sees the almost perfect comeback of ARM the filmmaker post
debacles like Spyder, Darbar & even Sikandar. He has an unique voice in the
commercial, mainstream space where he mixes a socially relevant theme well
with the usual mass template.
This movie establishes SK in the action genre as his action scenes worked to
an large extent and infact I was not able to connect with his lighter scenes in
this movie as it came out very artificial. Was nice to see Saptha Saagar Side A
& Side B fame Rukmini Vasanth make her presence felt in how much ever role
was given to her.
A massive letdown was the lack of depth of the villain characters( one of ARMs
biggest strengths IMO) ans the very ordinary, generic music & BGMs from
Anirudh which doesn’t aid the last 30-40 minutes of the movie which gets very
generic and needed some boost from the usually in sync composer.
To sum it up, personally Madharasi will be among the better big star movies
that have come up this year with SK showing post ‘Amaran’ that he can carry
off a dark, non conventional action drama almost completely on his shoulders.
Pleased to see the return of sorts of ARM as its important he can deliver his
style of film making; a mix of socially relevant theme packaged well with
action, romance & drama!
For people who don’t mind the usual generic action, some twists and violence
dominating the storyline this should be a good watch and for sure the fans of
SK will have lots to cheer about in this latest Kollywood release!
Courtesy: Written by Raghav Ravichandran