Maanagaram is all about wrong people at the wrong time. The story begins with Regina interviewing Sri for a BPO job. Sri explains how he is forced to take up a job in the city and how much he prefers his hometown than the city he is in now. Then we are shown Sundeep Kishan who is madly in love with the Regina. He is shown as a loafer who is not ready to get into any job. Although these two characters seem to be more important, the other characters introduced subsequently deserves their one stretch of importance too.
Charlie comes as an innocent newbie to the city who is not aware of the city roads. He has a son struggling from asthma, and he is in the city to get better treatment for him. Then we have Sri’s friend who has been in the city for 5 years. A gangster who has been stalking Regina and his friend who beats up Sri. The story might look mind boggling in the paper but the director has finished up with ease the herculean task of making the story crystal clear on screen.
The characters are introduced in a piled up manner, but they don’t seem like they are bombarded. The stories with which the characters are introduced are very interesting that we don’t seem to question their appearance at any point of the film.
An important aspect of a hyperlink movie will be the way in which all the stories converge at the final act. In most of the movies, the entire story will be written bearing in mind only the climax part. Here on the contrary entire act that builds up to the climax stage is interesting too that not for one act do we get bored. Despite all the tension that is built up throughout the movie, Ramdoss steals the show with his quirky one-liners and exceptional performance.
Once the final act nears the end, we question the names of the characters, the characters are not called by their names in the entire movie. Sir, Brother, Macha, Sivappu Sattai, Checked shirt, Pachai Sattai these are the ways in which the characters are being pointed out.
There are dialogues that stand out too. “Manushan pannura thappu ku, oora kutham solli enna sir punniyam”. “Namma ennikaavathu mathavanga prichanaiya ketrukoma” are few dialogues that make us feel.
In the very first interview scene, we are shown that Sri receives a call but declines it without even looking at who it is. Then Regina receives a call from Divya seconds later. We do not question who Divya is as we are so busy taking in the other story lines. But later in the second half, this part makes sense and everything falls in place. The director need not have put in the phone call shot in the interview sequence, but that is what amps up the quality of the movie.
The performances are top notch, not for one shot do we feel any amateurishness in the entire movie and the Maanagaram is debut film by Lokesh. The Background score pumps up the tension in the atmosphere at the right places. Credit goes to Javed Riaz, the music director for adding up swag element to the film with the BGM (the music and the graphics in the opening credits sets the tone of the film).
Excellent writing, perfect filmmaking coupled with top notch performances is what makes Maanagaram a must watch.
Tags: Managaram, Maanagaram, Tamil movie review.