Spoilers ahead…
Every young Tamil-film hero looking to become a super star (if not the Superstar) makes a film in which he plays a cop. That’s when he announces his ambitions of entering the big leagues. Enough with all this love from the urban pockets. I now want B- and C-centre adoration. Maari is Balaji Mohan’s announcement that directors can do this too. He wants to show the industry that he isn’t just the sweet guy who made Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi and Vaayai Moodi Pesavum. He wants to show he has chest hair. No more long, lyrical titles, please. Maari: one word, rhymes with massy. It’s the kind of film that would be fifteen minutes shorter if they removed all scenes with slo-mo strutting by Maari (Dhanush) – but if they did that, how would the excited boys seated ahead of me have gotten the opportunity to stand up every few minutes and bring the house down? Maari is Balaji Mohan’s stab at the uniquely Indian genre meant for Whistling Thronging Fans. It’s a WTF movie.
Which isn’t to say it’s a terrible movie. The director shows that he can stage a mass moment with the best of them. One of these moments involves a table and Maari’s propped-up feet. That’s it – he doesn’t utter a word. This setup is repeated a little later, this time with firecrackers. Again, no words. But Maari can’t be silent all the time, especially if he’s got to keep repeating the mantra that’s such a part of the mass-hero persona. It’s a good one: senjiruven, I’ll do you in. Maari’s fingers scissor through the air and land inches away from the opponent’s throat. It’s a mark of Dhanush’s capabilities that we don’t laugh when these heroics come from a man who could hide behind Kajal Aggarwal’s arm. The part is by no means a stretch – all it needs is star power. But Dhanush acts his heart out, as though he believed he were the first ever actor to play a small-time rowdy with a heart as golden as the fat chains around his neck. At times, he makes us believe too.
Kajal Aggarwal is Sridevi. She wants to set up a boutique in Maari’s lower-middle-class neighbourhood, but he is a nuisance. He wants a cut. They’re opposites, and you think it’s just a matter of time before they’re attracted to each other. In fact, I thought this would happen the first time they met. He sees her and the world sort of goes silent, the way it does in the movies when people fall in love. A few scenes later, he tells her, “I love you.” But this angle comes with a surprisingly sharp edge. We think, for a while, that Sridevi is your garden-variety loosu ponnu, and then we see that she isn’t. Balaji Mohan seems to be saying that he isn’t selling out – at least not completely. He knows these are clichés, and he knows we know these are clichés – and he’s trying to present them in a new light. There’s another nice scene between Maari and a distraught little girl. You roll your eyes and think it’s the usual “sentiment” scene, but the way it ends made me smile.
The problem is that there isn’t enough of this. Save for the bits with Robo Shankar (he’s a riot as Maari’s sidekick), the writing is shockingly ordinary – lots of tell, very little show. A long voiceover at the beginning of the first half sets up the protagonist; another long voiceover at the beginning of the second half sets up the antagonist. Does making a mass movie mean that you forget to make an interesting one? The film keeps adding subplots – about pigeon racing, about red sandalwood smuggling, about Maari turning auto driver (or maybe this is really Dhanush turning into Rajinikanth) – but these developments come and go. They don’t particularly add to the movie, which seems to have been thought of in terms of a few mass moments and very little else. The casting, too, is off. Was Vijay Yesudas really the best you could find for such an important role? He looks like a man trying to pull himself out of quicksand using his shoelaces.
Would we complain so much had the director been different? Maybe not. But then, Maari shows hints of being a different kind of mass-masala movie, and it’s frustrating when we keep getting long, dull stretches of sameness. So, yes, you’re giving your leading man John Lennon glasses and machete sideburns – but what use is it when little else about him is new? Yes, you’re sprucing up action scenes with Steadicam shots and 360-degree camera swirls – but what use is it when there’s so little innovation in the stunts themselves, and when the villains are so unmemorable? Yes, Anirudh peps things up for a few minutes with the ultra-catchy Don-u don-u – but why are the other numbers so forgettable? But there may be at least one other reason this composer was chosen. He makes an appearance in a song sequence and makes Dhanush look like Schwarzenegger in comparison. As I said, it’s a WTF movie.
KEY:
- loosu ponnu = the heroine in every other Tamil film; she looks like she’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2015 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
ThouShaltNot
July 17, 2015
He makes an appearance in a song sequence and makes Dhanush looks like Schwarzenegger in comparison
For Anirudh, I was instead expecting “…someone who could hide behind Kajal Agarwal’s finger”. But, this works as well 🙂
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ThouShaltNot
July 17, 2015
Ok, it’s pile-on-Anirudh time: Given the finger reference, we’ll also call him “Tom Thumbi, Chella Kambi”. And the latter for his high ductility quotient 🙂
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Ram Murali
July 17, 2015
“It’s a WTF movie”
–> Add that to the list of BRisms!
Here’s my list of favorite BRisms:
1. Meta
2. Alabaster automaton
3. THIS is “cinema!” (the likes of Mani Ratnam and Gowtham Menon as opposed to Visu, Vikraman and Bhagyaraj!)
4. Pretty pictures don’t make for great cinematography
5. Act but don’t ACT! (Invisible vs. OTT acting) NOTE: even Irrfan Khan in “Lunchbox” was “caught” acting 🙂
5. Nalla Karuthu vs. Karuthaana filmmaking – if you can give me only one, gimme the latter!
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Iswarya
July 17, 2015
Maari: one word, rhymes with massy?
Really?? 🙂
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gvsafamily
July 17, 2015
Balaji Mohan dishing out ‘mass’ Maari and Salman Khan starring in a good movie (at least from I hear)
Enna le nadakkudhu inga?
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Botched Plan B
July 17, 2015
Is this a case of going massy yet not so massy or generally losing the way when given a lavish budget to work with. It has happened to many talented directors of late – Ameer Sultan with Aadhi Bhagavan, Anurag Kashyap with Bombay Velet to name a few. Guess creativity is inversely proportional to money, at least in our (our here means Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Odiya and other regional languages if I have missed any!) films. Please correct me if I am generalizing things. 🙂
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Bhavani
July 17, 2015
“He wants to show he has chest hair.”
Saar, like this?
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brangan
July 17, 2015
Ram Murali: Saar, meta isn’t my coinage. It’s an old, old thing 🙂
Bhavani: Egad. Now you have me thinking about S Janaki’s “maarula saanju pudhayal eduppene” line in Poovarasampoo poothachu — and I do not want that in my head 😀
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Ram Murali
July 17, 2015
@brangan – doesn’t have to be your coinage to be a BRism in my mind 🙂 I just like these terms/phrases that you use in quite a few of your reviews where appropriate. And, I hope it isn’t the last time you use WTF!
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Santosh Balakrishnan
July 17, 2015
“meant for Whistling Thronging Fans. It’s a WTF movie.”
one of the best innovative line i have read to date (not just from ur reviews)
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gvsafamily
July 17, 2015
@Bhavani
A wonderful IR melody (the video of which I had not bothered to watch properly until now) stands tarnished forever by the sight of Sangeetha’s bizarre fetish for knotting RK’s chest hair.
Ipdi pannitteengale ma? 😀
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aparna
July 17, 2015
So after reading all the gushing references to Amala in Agninachitaram in another thread here a couple of months back, I decided to check out the movie, which I had seen a long time back but mostly forgotten. To find out what was so great about her role there. Admittedly she looked good but I wondered why she seemed to possess the IQ of a three year old. Actually, not even that. But now I get it : she was only being a ” loosu ponnu”.
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udhaysankar
July 17, 2015
Botched Plan B: Yep,you are generalizing. I think Mani Ratnam skilfully balanced the thin rope between working with big stars and retaining juice in his material. And it is extremely unfair to call Anurag as someone who compromises his creativity while working with big budgets. Bombay Velvet didn’t work not because of lazy film-making, but because of the lacklustre, generic characterisations. It is just one variable gone wrong in an equation where any of the other variables could have gone wrong. It’s something that can happen to any filmmaker.
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praneshp
July 17, 2015
@Botched Plan B: I didn’t think it was a disaster on the Adhi Bhagavan level. The comedy was really really good (at least for me), so as long as you can withstand 15 minutes of Kajal, you’ll be fine. It’s also relatively short (2h 15m).
Also, I’d say it’s the best of Dhanush’s recent movies. Naiyandi was atrocious; Anegan made you watch Ameya Dastur. This one was better than VIP, IM(H)O. I hope Robo Shankar does movies only once in a while, and does it like this.
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Padhma
July 17, 2015
Ram Murali, I love your BRisms, Saar 🙂
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Rahul
July 17, 2015
Ahead of your Bajrangi Bhaijaan review, here are some words of wisdom :
Milap Zaveri @zmilap 9m9 minutes ago
Any critic who tries to run down #BajrangiBhaijaan is just trying to continue being irrational and stubborn! Don’t fool yourself!
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Hithesh Devasya
July 18, 2015
Spoilers
It’s not just Vijay Yesudas, I felt that even “Bird” Ravi’s arc was not done well enough. Bird Ravi and his gang were more in it to push Maari’s mass factor than instigate or flare the conflict in the movie. I really loved the initial voice-over. It nicely builds Maari’s legend. Sadly, the central plot doesn’t match this sequence. Where Vetri Maran ensured that the cock fights added to Aadukalam’s setting, the pigeon racing exists only to have the generic “sidekicks tell heroine the hero’s background” and the silly climax.
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ThouShaltNot
July 18, 2015
Egad. Now you have me thinking about S Janaki’s “maarula saanju pudhayal eduppene” line in Poovarasampoo poothachu — and I do not want that in my head
BR, doesn’t pudhayal refer to buried treasure? And not the fluffy surface outgrowth. Radhika’s preoccupation in that song was deeper. Consider yourself safe now 🙂
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Kannan Baskar
July 18, 2015
@BR: I have a question for you. Don’t you think it is possible to make a visually striking and cinematically poetic main stream cinema. In fact some of the movies of Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-Ho, Tarantino, and Guy ritchie, which IMO were cinematic masterpieces, also appealed to main stream audience. Balaji Mohan came across as a promising film maker, in his previous movie vaayai mood pesavum, he brought a new cinematic approach to the romantic comedy genre in Tamil cinema. I expected that he would bring the same panache and sophistication, in film making, to the gangster/masala genre.
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Kannan Baskar
July 18, 2015
@BR: A movie like snow piercer, which in the surface just seems to be an action thriller in a train (a cliche in itself), is written and filmed in such distinctive style. I don’t have a problem with the genre, or the mainstream appeal, or the cliched dialogues, but a refreshing approach to visualization is what i crave for. Am I asking a lot.
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Kannan Baskar
July 18, 2015
@BR: were you ever reminded of Wes Anderson, when you watched Vaayai mood pesavum or Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi
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Kannan Baskar
July 18, 2015
@BR: or I guess Balaji Mohan’s original style of filmmaking probably resembled that of Woody Allen, I might be mistaken here.
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Botched Plan B
July 18, 2015
Reblogged this on Botchedplanb's Blog and commented:
Haven’t had the chance to see Balaji Mohan’s (of Kadalil Sodappuvathu Eppadi and Vaai Moodi Pesavum) massy flick Maari yet. The coolest critic, Bharadwaj Rangan, reviews the movie here.
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brangan
July 18, 2015
Hithesh Devasya: Not just the pigeons. Even the auto-driver bit etc. was all very random.
Kannan Baskar: “Balaji Mohan … brought a new cinematic approach to the romantic comedy genre in Tamil cinema.”
I’m not sure I see what you mean. Yes, his first two films were different. They were fun, young — at parts very well-scripted. But what “new cinematic approach” did he have?
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Yossarian
July 18, 2015
@BR: Looks like you have been enjoying Dhanush’s acting, so ust thought I’ll point this out. (since it struck me when I was reading this review that I had seen the same line in your earlier review 🙂 )
“But Dhanush acts his heart out, as though he believed he were the first ever actor to play a small-time rowdy with a heart as golden as the fat chains around his neck.”
From your VIP review: But Dhanush acts his heart out, and I just couldn’t look away.
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Sakkaravarthi
July 19, 2015
Is it just me or does this movie echo back to Aadukalam and Pudhupettai? It just seems like a weird mashup that simply goes nowhere.
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Kannan Baskar
July 19, 2015
@BR: Hi, I can illustrate what i mean by a “new cinematic approach”, through some scenes and shots that appealed to me in Vaayai mood pesavum.
In Act I we are introduced to the dulqer’s character with just visuals first there is an extreme close up of his mouth and he is heard whistling, cut to a shot of his bag establishing that he is a door to door salesman, and then cut to him opening a door of a prospective customer. His character is established as a young salesman, and the close up of his mouth underlines the probable importance of talking and voice in the movie
The dramatic premise/ situation is introduced once again in visuals (though there seems to be a lot of talking going on), in a radio recording room as RJ Balaji coughs during his program and finally ends up losing his voice, moreover even this scene is intercut with Dulqer’s meeting with his first and second customer. This editing technique creates a sense of urgency in the mind of the audience, once again innovative writing and film making.
Once Dulqer starts to effectively convince his customers, we have this rapid zoom into his mouth and he clears his throat and cut that is it. And the next scene we see the customer having bought the product. Hence visually Dulqer’s efficiency in communicating is shown and not said.
Then cut to the News reader announcing the information about the disease spread. Cut to shots of people from various walks of life sharing their experience. Then the best part, a shot of villagers looking at hoards of media vans rolling into the town, the visuals say it all, though there seems to be a lot of talking.
Nazriya’s character is once again revealed in shots, in the first shot she is seen talking in a despondent fashion to her boy friend, cut to her reflection on the glass over her mom’s portrait, cut to her glasses, cut to alpenibe chocolates, cut to her doctor’s coat and stethoscope, that is it her character is established.
Then Madhu’s character, starts with her husband calling her name aloud, then a rapid dolly in/ zoom in onto Madhu, cooking and pleading him to wait up, then the camera closes up on her certificates establishes her as an author of repute, then in the same shot the focus racks and contrasts the present day made serving food to her husband.
In the next shot we see Madhu’s son walking towards his school bag, getting all his books into his school bag, next shot he looks around and stealthily slips his sony playstation vita into his bag, in the same shot we do see Nazriya watching it and ignoring it. Then he walks on to the dining table and pleads to his mom for a new note book, cut there is a close up of him slipping in his notebook into the school bag. Once again with just shots and innovative editing and lens use we are introduced to his character.
Simultaneously of course there is this doctor husband character who is busy talking on the phone and his voice seems to form audio background so to say of all what is happening in this scene. Hence with some intelligent writing, cinematography, editing techniques we are not just introduced to the three characters we also get a feel of the family dynamics.
These characteristics of Balaji Mohan’s filmmaking set him apart from his peers IMO. At times i felt he seems to have been inspired by Woody Allen and Wes Anderson. Do let me know your opinion BR.
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shh
July 19, 2015
“So, yes, you’re giving your leading man John Lennon glasses and machete sideburns – but what use is it when little else about him is new?”
I’ll admit I read your review before I read your review, and so, went in with low expectations. I came away super impressed with the characterization of Maari, so much so that I’d say that it is one of the more interesting and consistent portrayals of mass movie protagonists I can think of from recent times…
… like how he’s an unabashed rowdy who tortures normal people in ways a sappa villain, who exists just to set the stage for the real hero entry might, in maas movies (saamy comes to mind, but that was just a gimmick)… You’d hate to have someone like that in your neighborhood (that there could be worse thugs doesn’t isn’t a consolation), and nothing in the plot makes you think otherwise!
… or like how he avoids sentiments with humans and is generally untrusting of them (and is only vindicated by Sridevi’s betrayal). He sticks to it till the end pretty much. Even if there were hints of his compassion, there’s never a compassionate gesture he makes (other than to pigeons). He may have professed love, but that might just be out of his friends’ prodding, and he certainly didn’t seem disappointed when that went south. Heck he doesn’t even express a word of gratitude to Sri for saving the pigeons. And of course he sings:
… Thaniya Vanthaen Thaniya Povaen …
… Sontha Bantham Thaeva Illa …
Devoid of general human emotions, I think the only thing there was to Maari was his GETHU. And that was all there was to see… cue the slo-mos….
(aside, I’d have loved to see Rajini from the 80s as Maari)
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shh
July 19, 2015
Also, it is interesting that the song “Oru Vidha Aasai” song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t1z1ld43N0), which talks of a wishful romantic, didn’t show up in the film, since it might just have been out of line with Maari’s characterization.
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brangan
July 19, 2015
Yossarian: You annoyingly sharp-eyed reader, you! 🙂
Sakkaravarthi: At the beginning, I did think this was Aadukalam-meets-Pudhupettai. But both angles went nowhere.
Kannan Baskar: That was amazing, thanks. But what you’re describing still seems to me a function of “filmmaking” rather than “approach” — though I guess I’m defining the latter too rigidly. Balaji Mohan was definitely more of a “director” in those earlier films than here.
I don’t see any Anderson here. Woody Allen… hmmm… I’m generally seeing someone with a more commercial and mainstream sensibility, someone like pre-Roja Mani Ratnam.
shh: Oh please 🙂 That unabashed rowdy bit was interesting (love how he burst the kids’ balloons 😀 ) till we learn about his heart of gold.
Like I said in the review, the interesting thing was the way the love angle was handled… till the end.
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Siddarth Menon
July 19, 2015
@brangan: Don’t you believe that the compromise on an in-depth story, (is not only the fundamental character of a commercial ‘mass’ movie, but in this case) is actually worth it considering the end result/the mass element?
This probably extends to the casting of Vijay Yesudas as well. Yes, granted that its an important role and indeed a rather unexplainable decision,but is it a bad decision?
Vijay Yesudas in Mariyaan. Horrendous.
Vijay Yesudas in Maari, not so much.
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praneshp
July 20, 2015
@brangan: Glad you liked the bursting kids’ balloons scene too 🙂 That and the throwing crackers bits were my favorites.
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Ram Murali
July 23, 2015
Thank you, Padhma, for your comment. Orey mixed reviews for my BRisms!
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Deepika
July 24, 2015
Like your mixed review
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Amit Joki
January 22, 2016
I really hope Balaji Mohan reads your review and correct those areas which made this “grindingly ordinary”, because, plans are on for Maari – 2.
Also, Balaji Mohan is a self-admitted(is this right word?) fanatic of Dhanush. That might have had better of him in showcasing of the film.
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Linda
January 23, 2016
Maari name meaning is Rain, Wealthy. Its a female Hindu name.
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