Film: Manmadha Banam
Rating: 2.25/5
Banners: Lakshmi Ganapathy Films, Red Giant Movies
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Trisha, Madhavan, Sangeetha, Ramesh Aravind, Urvashi, Das, Manju Pillai, Srimaan, Usha Uthup, Oviya, Caroline, Suriya (spl appearance) and others
Music: Devisri Prasad
Dialogues: Vennelakanti
Cinematography: Manush Nandan
Editing: Shaan Mohammad
Story, screenplay: Kamal Haasan
Director: K S Ravi Kumar
Producers: B Subrahmanyam, Y Rupesh
Release date: 23/12/2010
Kamal Haasan is back and this time he has not experimented with anything and came up with a straightforward love tale.
Story:
Set on the backdrop of Europe, the story starts with Nisha (Trisha), a noted actress who breaks up with her boyfriend Madangopal (Madhavan) after getting engaged and comes to Europe along with her friend Deepa (Sangeetha) and her kids.
Apparently, Madan suspects Nisha of having affairs and since he wants to prove a point, he hires Major Bhushan (Kamal) to spy on Nisha and provide evidence so that he can come clean. Bhushan has his own commitments in the form of his friend’s (Ramesh Aravind) chemotherapy and hence keen on earning money by any means.
What starts as a tale of detective work takes a different turn for Bhushan and connects him with his heart and also his past. What are those twists forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
This is a nothing role for Kamal Haasan and his caliber. Though there was a scene or two where he got the chance to show his mettle, overall it was just a cake walk. He looks reasonably trim in this.
Trisha has increased her oomph and though she still has that cute looks, age is catching up with her and it is visible on her face. Performance wise, she was elegant and scored the brownie points.
Madhavan was effective but then his character was not etched that strongly so there were fluctuations in his performance.
Sangeetha did her bit as required and looked voluptuously attractive in few scenes. The dubbing of anchor Jhansi worked well for Sangeetha.
Ramesh Aravind was alright, Urvashi was crying all the time, Das and Manju Pillai did their bit as required, Oviya was brief, Caroline looked beautiful, Usha Uthup was a surprise, the child artistes were okay, Suriya with his song was a pleasure to watch.
Highlights:
- Screenplay during the first half, reminded a bit of Gautham Menon
- Rich locations and impressive camerawork in catching them on the lens
- Kamal’s flashback song in a rewind mode was variety
Disappointments:
- Hardly anything for Kamal Haasan to show his real prowess in performance
- Complete disjoint between the first half and second half in terms of feel Silly comedy
- No trace of Ravi Kumar’s commercial elements
- Last thirty minutes brought dead silence among the audience, this was out of confusion
Analysis:
Given the title, the expectations were that it would be a flossy romantic entertainer with its own share of comedy and entertainment. However, the film takes off as a rather serious love story filled with sentiments, intensity and depth. With little humorous narration, the film runs smooth till interval.
But then, it turns into a total reverse with the second half getting into silly comedy and unwanted sequences on the lines of ‘Pellam Oorellite’ etc, with confusion in character lines. At one point, the total film looks silly and there is absolutely no life in the climax. The saving grace to the film is the technical values, the star power and two decent songs.
At the box office, there is nothing for the masses and the classes will like the first half and leave by second half. This will be thumbs down at the box office.
Bottomline: Nowhere near the mark, disappointing!!
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
