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Madras Tamil Movie Review

Madras Tamil Movie Review
  • Banner
  • Studio Green
  • Cast
  • Karthi,Catherine Tresa
  • Direction
  • Pa. Ranjith
  • Music
  • Santhosh Narayanan
  • Photography
  • G Murali

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Madras - Exceptional theme but lacks a matured treatment

If you have a small doubt of terming Madras as a director’s film or actor’s one, we have a clear verdict; it belongs to the former category. Madras is directed by Attakathi fame Ranjith and is produced by K.E. Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green Films. The film stars Karthi and Catherine Tresa in lead roles with a huge-star-cast with Santhosh Narayanan composing music and Murali handling cinematography.


Story

Set against the locales of North Chennai, the film encompasses the pre-existing feudal between two political gangs over the generations. All for the sake of one ‘Wall’ (Suvar) that makes it deliberately an origin of split and conflicts. Passing onto the present generation, the scenario remains the same and the battle turns unceasing. Amidst such turmoils and upheavals, we find Kaali (Karthi) getting around with his own lifestyle, but doesn’t miss to dedicate his hours completely to his close friend Anbu (Kalaiarasan) who is involved in the political works and his motto is to acquire the ‘Wall’ as a token of prestige. Everything now changes in their lives taking them somewhere, they didn’t imagine.


Performance

It’s quite a relief to Karthi. Following a couple of mediocre movies, the actor tries to regain his position with a best show. Although, one cannot say that he has surmounted our expectations, he has somewhat done justice to his role and the scrupulous efforts he has taken is so much evident. The scenes involving fun-filled encounters and the emotional outburst on the losses he has incurred in his life are beyond the brilliance. Catherine Tresa has to thank her dubbing artist and of course if not for her, this girl would have vanished. Although Catherine looks little unconvincing for the role, her dialogues help a lot in enhancing her character. Kalaiarasan can keep his fingers crossed and he is sure to gain the best awards for the coming year. The one we find in the role of Johnny almost plays a lead role in this film. The audiences don’t forget to enjoy his portions throughout the film. His fast-paced dialogue deliveries become the highlighting trait and most of them are huge laughter-riots. Ritwika as Kalaiarasan’s wife delivers a decorous spell. Poster Nandhu plays the baddie of an emperor like personality in the film and his role is convincing.


Plus

Ranjith has taken scrutinising efforts to do the research of the locality and lifestyle of North Chennaites, which is so much illustrious throughout the film. While there have been many films based on North Chennai, Ranjith does complete justice to the film by keeping us completely into the same locales and not moving anywhere outside the zone. Even the beach sequences are shot in the backdrops of Ennore, which really deserves special appreciations to him. The strong characterisations and brilliant casting is the fascinating attribute of this film. Cinematography by Murali and the way he tries to generate different emotions through the camera positioning on ‘Wall’ is a beautiful job. Editor Praveen doesn’t let us feel the length of feel with his soft transition in editing. But the actual showstopper is Santhosh Narayanan, who speaks the emotions with his background score.


Minus

Although, everything is fine with the film, there is a basic rule ‘Connecting the dots’, which becomes the essential criteria of deciding the film’s results. Yes, Madras has good characterisations, dialogues, screenplay and technical aspects, but on the flip side, the momentum isn’t constant all the time. There are few interesting portions that move you to the edge of seats, especially the ones pre-and-post intermission. Unfortunately, the first half is almost like a normal commercial drama, where Ranjith tries to add too many episodes. If ‘Wall’ is the basic problem, let the characters speak about it. Then we are introduced to new conflict of Karthi trying to woo Catherine Tresa. These elements actually confuse the audiences if it’s a crime-thriller or romantic story. The length of this film turns quite lengthy due to such inclusions. Couple of songs ‘Naan Nee’ and ‘Aagayam Theepiditha’ are really melodious numbers, but the placement turns the screenplay dull. We find these songs placed back-to-back in five minutes of interval, which becomes a spoiler. If Ranjith wanted to convey a message, this is not the right ground. How can you bring it here in a crime thriller? If the Wall is the conflict and the protagonist has already found a way along with his crowd to settle the issue, then the film had to end right there. But again, it’s a commercial treatment of fights with a twist and message at last.

Verdict : Exceptional theme but lacks a matured treatment

Stars : 2.5/5

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