Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/meesaya-murukku-movie-review
The musical duo named Hiphop Tamizha – comprising Adhi and Jeeva – is behind the surprise success, Meesaya Murukku (Twirl that Moustache). They’ve written the story, screenplay, dialogue and lyrics, composed the music, and directed the film, which is somewhat autobiographical: this is the story of a boy with music-making ambitions (Adhi) who went to engineering college, met with failure before meeting a Radio Mirchi RJ who helped a video go viral, and ended up composing for a Sundar C film starring Vishal. The (admittedly catchy) song in the video went Clubbula mubbula, which is the hip-hop answer to the nineties’ hit, Senthamizh naattu Thamizhachiye, a rant against Indian women who do “Western” things like going to bars, having a drink…
It’s “Tamil culture” as our films would have us believe, and it fits right in with the aggressively “Tamil” image that Adhi has cultivated, beginning with the likeness of Subrahmanya Bharathi that appears on the band’s logo. Subsequently, Adhi has been part of the jallikattu protests. The group lent its name to an apparel brand named Tamizhanda Clothing, which sells clothes with slogans and quotes written in Tamil. (From their web site: “Bringing to the fore – the fame of Tamil in a fashion attire. Stand tall. Sport the pride. Tamizhanda clothing.”) And then, there’s the music itself: hiphop, with Tamil lyrics.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2017 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
harish ram
August 8, 2017
I saw this type of assessment for this film coming from you when I watched the film. My POV on why it worked with a certain type of youth is because of the songs. By songs, I didn’t mean the target audience was forgiving because they liked the songs (and the humor). The songs I think hides most of the low hanging fruits the movie was targeting. As an example, the song ‘vaadi pula vaadi’ in the climax which was a rage when it came out as an independent song, here excites the audience who was exposed to the song irrespective of how it is a loose fit for the film. This and in many other instances in the film, the connect is coming from an external source and not something that is directly visible on the screen.
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Jyoti S Kumar
August 8, 2017
Speaking of vaadi pulla vaadi, it’s been on our playlist for sometime now… Especially the lines “narakathil vaazhalam” gives me goosebumps. Since I liked this song, I searched for others and came across clubbula… I God! That was enough for me and I didn’t even bother to check out his other songs… I think he has mastered early on how to cater to the “virgin boys” and just riding in the same wave that GV Prakash is.
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
August 8, 2017
Adhi, I’m sure, has the potential to become the future TR.
P. S. You cannot have Tamil and ‘Subrahmanya’ on the same line. 🙂
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praneshp
August 8, 2017
I think Adhi was not a run-of-the-mill Jallikatu protestor. I saw a music video from him almost 6 months before the protest, and he was one of the few to quit (publicly) when the protest became less about the sport and more about using the moment to get famous.
One thing you missed out. IMO, in the review is the number of Youtube celebs in the movie. The makers knew their target, and didn’t care about making “a real movie” (whatever that means to each of us) 🙂
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KP
August 8, 2017
You were forced to review this as its a pop event for this generation?
-KP
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Iswarya
August 12, 2017
It seems you are going to be busy with the Mumbai workshop and probably not reviewing the big releases of the week immediately. Why not open the comments section for people before updating the page with your review? 🙂
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Padawan
August 13, 2017
Saar, your review of Taramani? Curious to know what your thoughts are about this given that you didn’t like his previous two movies…
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Satya
August 13, 2017
Something rings very hollow in this review –
Why so reluctant and forced that too 3 weeks after the release?
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Iswarya
August 15, 2017
BR: Badly need a place to vent about Taramani. Also curious what you felt. Please do review soon or until then, open up the comments section for the movie as you did with Bajirao.
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Dhanda Soru
August 15, 2017
@Iswarya – Could you be so kind so as to provide a mini-rant of the film? Am quite intrigued by the subject matter, though going by what I’ve read, I expect BR’s reaction to be something similar to that of “Thanga Meenkal”.
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brangan
August 15, 2017
Iswarya: Am back tomorrow, so just hold on for a little bit more 😀
Don’t want to open a thread now because I haven’t read anything about the film and want to see it with as blank a slate as possible.
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Purple Sky
September 6, 2017
I started watching the movie with a lot of skepticism. But I had a hoot watching it. Be it the coupons for biryani, the vibrating phone, or even the rendu adimaigal…. RJ Vignesh and Sha Ra of YouTube fame were quite good… Maybe it is the connect of having already seen them on YouTube. When I finally recognised Sha Ra, I was already giggling remembering his previous YouTube videos, especially ammalo kitchen! Though the college scenes were generic, I could connect with it… I remembered my hostel days, so I immensely enjoyed the moments. Also, he has tapped into the feelings of every engineering student of the past few years (forced to study engg by parents, diff department, biotech and their separate college functions), by showing things as it is. I found the narrative very close to reality and not too much OTP. The first fight shown as a video game was fun. It really felt like an honest attempt and am almost inclined to forgive him for clubbula. All in all I was glad I watched it.
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David
September 9, 2017
Hey BR, long time reader from Sri Lanka. I totally agree with Purple Sky and Praneshp. It was so much fun! Yes, the coming-of-age portions were seriously underwritten and the romance was awfully generic. But I really feel you could have gone a bit easier on this one. I remember how accepting you were of “Inimey ippadaithan-” a movie with very similar flaws.
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sridharraman
September 30, 2017
As a non-youth, I was quite confused by some of the targetting. For example, is Shaktimaan really that big an attraction to the youth for it to be a “momentous” break in a song? Or, for that matter, do today’s kids know/like Shaktimaan? Who was that scene for?
Though some scenes (fight as a video game, e.g.) made sense, there seemed to be some more scenes that were confusingly targetted. I am very out of touch with the youth and current pop culture.
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