Karthik Naren shook the entire industry with his sensational debut. As a 21-year-old filmmaker, the audacity he chose to kick-start his career with an unconventional film must be appreciated. But as years passed the skills we saw in him started to disappear and I wonder what happened to the writer in him. Maaran by Karthik Naren is a lazy, yawn-inducing affair that questions the existence of Karthik as a filmmaker.
Maaran is a righteous investigative journalist who lost his parents in his childhood and his world revolves around his sister. He exposes an ex-minister’s scam which eventually turns him against Maaran and plots plans to avenge him. What happens next is a whole set of tedious events made to test our patience. Maaran is a multi-genre film as Karthik has filled all possible stretches in a single film. Starting off as a family drama the film turns into an investigative thriller to an action movie and finally a whodunit but none of it could make this shitshow work. Why are Tamil directors still running behind ‘Thangachi Pasam’? Don’t they have enough of them in the store? Maaran is yet another crap made out of it where the emotions are vaguely tackled. There’s hardly any scene exploring the brother-sister relation thus it fails to generate any connection. Maaran is made from a baseless screenplay with neither conflicts nor emotions falling in its place. The film tries to be KO and Kavan in terms of staging but the sloppy writing doesn’t let the film stream forward. The twists and turns which were supposed to raise our curiosity fall flat and end up hilarious. The film never makes any effort to land safely and Karthik Naren with a foul screenplay shows no sign of freshness. The pacing, character execution, template plot, story reveals all look hurried and exhausting.
What made Dhanush choose this run-of-the-mill outing? Even the national award-winning actor couldn’t salvage this deeply incoherent flick. It’s the actor’s presence that partly saved this sinking ship, still, that ain’t enough. Smruthi Venkat as Dhanush’s sister makes a fine appearance while Malavika Mohanan is more of a sidekick. Samuthirakani as the politician is a powerless antagonist who makes random appearances throughout the film and poses no threat to the unflinching hero. The score by GV Prakash Kumar works vividly and is a big boost to the fight scenes and the only thing in the film that worked for me.
Calling this underwhelming would be an understatement. This highly predictable thriller leaves danger warnings for the audience from the start itself. It’s entirely up to you to take the call, at least a bit of style would have made this inconsistent film less messy. A colossal dud from Dhanush that deserves no sympathy.
Review by© Rahul Babu