Raghava Lawrence's career has followed Prabhu Deva's pretty closely. Like Prabhu Deva, he too started
his career as a choreographer, became a dancer, tried his hand at being a hero and turned to direction
in Telugu before directing a Tamil film. But Lawrence has always been a few steps behind Prabhu Deva
since he never became as popular as the former in dancing, didn't last as long as him as a hero and
his films in Telugu weren't as successful as Prabhu Deva's. With his first Tamil film as director, he
lags behind Prabhu Deva also. While the latter delivered a good entertainer
that also became a box-office hit in Pokkiri , Lawrence gives us a
supernatural thriller that is never sure if it is a comedy or a thriller or a horror film and ends up
being none of them.
Ganesh(Lawrence) has been raised as a coward by his father. He never steps out of the house after 6pm
and the very mention of ghosts sends him scurrying away. Ganesh's family, including his wife(Vedhika),
moves to a new house in Chennai. Unknown to them, the ghost of Muniyandi(Rajkiran) is hovering around
in the house, itching for revenge against Dhandapani(Dhandapani), the local MLA. Muni's ghost now looks
to Ganesh to help it seek vengeance.
Lawrence is afflicted with the same problem that afflicts most of our directors today - the tendency
to exaggerate. So instead of a hero who is simply frightened of things most people are frightened about,
we get a hero who begins quivering with fear the moment the clock strikes 6 and doesn't even go to the
bathroom alone at night. Having a hero who is scared could have been different and exploited well but
the exaggeration has the opposite effect and actually dilutes the comic effect of these scenes. With
his romance with Vedhika also being extremely silly, the first quarter of the film offers precious
little to the viewer. But the movie begins with a sequence that points towards it being a horror thriller
and that expectation is what makes us sit through the initial portions.
Lawrence is clearly plagued by confusion on the tone to adopt for the film. He wants to keep things
light-hearted and this isn't a problem in the initial portions. But considering the nature of Rajkiran's
flashback and the intentions of his ghost, the light tone doesn't fit the film once the ghost makes
its appearance. So Lawrence's attempts to keep things light(like his conversations with the ghost
and the whole track with the possessed girl living in his house) don't work too well.
And then there's the question of logic. Ghost stories require a certain level of suspension of disbelief
and thats a given. But the story in Muni isn't true to itself. The behavior of the ghost isn't
consistent and we're never sure if Lawrence has control over it or not. So some of the scenes seem
really silly.
With special effects and wire-fu techniques, fight sequences in Tamil cinema have ceased to be believable
for some time now. Stunts routinely involve our heroes performing gravity-defying leaps and impossible
stunts and landing impossibly-powerful punches and kicks. But because of its story, Muni creates
a situation where such stunts are possible. So the climax is entertaining rather than ridiculous and
the final touch manages to close out things cleverly.
The exaggeration mentioned before afflicts the actor in Lawrence too as he overacts his way through the
role of the scared hero. He is better in the action sequences and manages to convey the needed anger
and ferocity when Rajkiran's ghost takes hold of him. Rajkiran too overacts as he tries to portray
a good-hearted man. Vedhika has little to do while Vinu Chakravarthy and Kovai Sarala make an interesting
couple. Bharadwaj, who usually delivers a good soundtrack for Saran films, lets him down in this film,
which Saran produced. All the songs are fast and Cula Cula Dracula... is the only one that seems
a little better because of its Thriller-like picturization.
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