Never Ending Movie Carnival
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Maaran review: Dhanush infuses swagger & machismo
What: Maaran movie review – the Dhanush Vanity vehicle is a routine commercial potboiler
OTT movie review Maaran
Maaran directed by Karthick Naren, stars Dhanush as the titular protagonist who is gutsy, bold and unfazed by consequences.
In his intro sequence, we see him in a shady bar in a totally inebriated state but he regains his senses and power with a pouch of water after being instigated by a bunch of gundas.
He beats them to the pulp. Soon we see him take up a job in investigative journalism and soon find his life at risk.
He teams up with the police to bust the plan of a corrupt politician in manipulating the EVM machines and win the elections.
The film has a rather clichéd start. An honest journalist, Satyamoorthy (Ramki) is killed by goons leaving his son orphaned.
His wife loses her life while delivering a girl child. The son grows to be Maathimaaran who raises his sister (Smruthi Venkat) with profound love but things turn awry when she is killed by the poltician's men for his explosive report against him.
Maaran swears revenge but he is encouraged by his girlfriend Thara(Malavika Mohanan) to go the legal way - collect necessary evidence and then punish the man.
The template is laid and sticks to the genre tropes but the inconsistent narrative and loose editing (Prasanna G.K) play the spoilsport here.
The writing by Karthick Naren and Suhas-Sarfu is also weak - Maaran is a multiple award winning journalist and even appears on the cover of a reputed magazine.
He even impresses his boss during his recruitment - a stunt that later costs him a lot ! The makers are clueless in maneuvering their plot.
The only saving grace is Dhanush who infuses swagger and machismo to his character, despite the predictable screenplay and heavy-duty sentiments between brother and sister.
Malavika Mohanan chews chewing gum for almost all the screentime she gets and holds her own against Dhanush.
Samuthirakani is downsized as a cardboard villain
Maaran gets its mojo during the penultimate 20 minutes but then it’s too late for Naren's thriller to fly. Only Dhaush fans might get their due.
I go with 2.5 stars out of 5 for Maaran. The film is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Ahwaan Padhee, is an IT Techie/Business Consultant by profession and a film critic/cinephile by passion, is also associated with Radio Playback as well, loves writing and conducting movie quizzes. More By Ahwaan Padhee