A macham is usually associated with good luck and so a machakkaaran is someone who is supremely
lucky. So it is pretty clever that the film Machakkaaran is about man who is unlucky. But that's
where the cleverness stops. Once the film progresses beyond showing us the man's bad luck and the troubles he
gets into because of it, it reveals itself to be a regular rich girl-poor boy love story with nothing to make
it stand out from the innumerable other movies that have dealt with the same story.
Vicky(Jeevan), the eldest son of a Railways ticket collector, is constantly chased by bad luck. Fate itself
seems to be conspiring against him and he always gets in trouble due to circumstances beyond his control.
His luck finally starts changing when he meets Shivani(Kamna Jethmalani), the daughter of a rich businessman.
The two fall in love and Shivani's family too agrees with her choice of husband. But when Vicky goes to her
house with his family, trouble for him comes from an unexpected source.
It is interesting seeing a hero dogged by bad luck every step of the way. Tamil cinema heroes do have their share
of bad luck and crises but not on an everyday basis like Jeevan here. The situations created to illustrate
his lack of luck are not completely outside the realm of possibility and his responses are believable (particularly
hilarious is the scene where a mom unwittingly uses him as a kind of boogey-man to feed her son. This happens so
often but for someone like Jeevan, it could be particularly hurtful and his extreme reaction is fully understandable).
So he manages to earn our sympathy.
Jeevan's father's act at Kamna's house does come as a surprise. The scenario of a father unhappy with his son's
life isn't particularly new but such dads are usually happy when their son's life takes a turn for the better.
But here's a dad who goes out of his way to spoil the good turn his son's life has taken. This is a nice plot point
that is pregnant with possibilities but the movie doesn't proceed along this path. Instead it turns into a
predictable rich girl-poor boy love story with the characters revealing themselves to be stock characters
in all such stories.
When Jeevan promises Shivani - with the glint in the eyes that all heroes have when they utter a challenge -
that he will do something that will scare the bad guys, we look forward to some good action. But his plan
is a huge letdown. It is a single idea that seems repetitive by the second time it is implemented and so
gets tiring real soon. The same thing happens in the climax too. The location and the situation could have
been exploited well but the film ends in the lamest way possible.
Jeevan is wooden as usual and the few lines he gets to utter(like his drunken outburst at his family after the
fiasco at Kamna's house) are spoiled by his bad diction. The only positive is that his droopy look suits the
unlucky, depressed character he plays initially. Kamna looks good at a few places but is just required to go
along for the ride for most of the film. The actors playing Kamna's dad and brother are convincing in their
roles. The Machakkaaran... bit in the background score is more catchy that any of Yuvan Shankar Raja's
other songs.
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