After Kannammaa , Karunanidhi has once again picked up the pen
for Mannin Maindhan. The former atleast had a woman-oriented storyline that would
potentially allow Karunanidhi to pen some strong dialogs(the fact that that didnt happen
either is a different matter altogether!). But Mannin Maindhan, with its story of
dadas and love, provides even less material for Karunanidhi to utilize his
script-writing skills.
Bhairavamoorthy(Manoj.K.Jayan) and Gajapathy(Ponnambalam) are two dadas at loggerheads
with each other. Kathir(Sibi), who works for Bhairavamoorthy, holds special hatred for Gajapathy
since it was Gajapathy who killed his parents. Bhairavamoorthy's daughter Amutha(Suha) falls for
Kathir and convinces him to accept her love also. But Bhairavamoorthy is against their union and
is ready to forget his enmity with Gajapathy to break off his daughter's romance.
Characterization is not one of the movie's strongpoints and the problem starts right at the top
i.e. Sibi. We first see Manoj.K.Jayan hand a sickle to a young Sibi asking him to kill
Ponnambalam. Next we see a grownup Sibi clashing with Ponnambalam's goons with their boss hale
and healthy behind them. And inspite of itching for revenge, he still lets Ponnambalam go when
he meets him face-to-face. This pretty much labels him ineffective in doing his job and a weak
hero but he is still feared by Ponnambalam and his henchmen! Satyaraj fares worse since he
is a comedian for the most part(his reason-no one registers a complaint) but suddenly turns
into a conscientious police officer once he gets a complaint. Eventually, the only guys who
are characterized well are the two villains!
Its only when we realize Manoj.K.Jayan's lack of true affection for Sibi that the story shows
signs of waking up. But instead of focussing on the conflict between the two of them, the movie
turns into a Jayam clone as Sibi and Suha go on the run. The whole
segment is boring, since it is obvious as a way to pad the running time. And after Manoj.K.Jayan's
guys kidnap Suha, the two eventually end up at exactly the same position they were in earlier.
So the the whole runaway episode serves no purpose and is redundant.
There is no scene where Karunanidhi's dialog stands out. There are a few political remarks about
the moving of the Kannagi statue and the Jayalakshmi case but these feel out of place. And it is
quite silly when both Satyaraj and Sibi, in unrelated scenes, declare that they would prove that
they are Mannin Maindhans! The comedy scene where Vadivelu attempts to collect some money by
posing as a Tsunami survivor also leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
The only reason Satyaraj agreed to appear in this movie seems to be to bring in a few more viewers,
who otherwise wouldn't see a movie with Sibi as the hero. His role is marginal for most of the
movie, with him appearing in what could be labelled as a comedy track. Sibi does well in the
fights and his role doesn't have scope for much else. Suha is adequate. Manoj.K.Jayan and
Ponnambalam get meaty roles as the dadas but don't bring anything special to the roles.
Bharadwaj seems to have realized this is not a Charan movie and has not put any effort into
the songs.
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