Man of the moment Sivakarthikeyan, basking in continuous success streak, is back hopping around in 'Maan Karate'. His highest budgeted film thus far, the promotions and marketing has been top-notch, especially when you have an A-list director, A.R Murugadoss in the fray as a fellow producer and the main story writer. Hansika for the glam and Anirudh for the music, can 'Maan Karate' cement Sivakarthikeyan as a saleable actor ?
Sivakarthikeyan has been steadily rising the steps of stardom and 'Maan Karate' happens to be the next level for him. There's a complete changeover for him, especially with his appearance and looks. He has been given the designer costumes, a trendy hairstyle and props to look dashing on screen. His dancing skills has improved exceptionally well, with more grace and style. Performance wise, there's nothing exceptional, though. He has repeated the 'Ethir Neechal' act once again, as the 'underdog' template is there in 'Maan Karate' as well. His comic timing and spontaneity is his trump card, and he does it with ease and elan. A good entertainer, with impressive timing and sense of humor, but can he survive the test of time ? Only time will decide ! Hansika Motwani plays the quintessential Tamizh glam-doll heroine role, of being pretty, glamorous and cute. She does a pretty job with her lip sync, especially when the language is not something she has a grasp of. Vamsi Krishna as the antagonist has a rather tepidly written role and sharing the same scenario is writer Shaji as Sivakarthikeyan's coach. Satish makes us chuckle with one or two of his dialogues and Soori makes a cameo appearance as a hyperbolic boxing referee, and leaves his mark. Sayaji Shinde, Rajesh Gopalan, Vinu Krithik, Preethi Shankar, Ashwathi Ravikumar, Ravi Prabakar, Swaminathan, Arun Roja, Yogi Babu, Vikramathithyan, Tejaswini and etc makes up the rest of the cast.
'Maan Karate' has a superior technical qualities as opposed to Sivakarthikeyan's past flicks. First of all the costume designers, Sathya N.J, Vasugi Bhaskar and Sayaam (Chandigarh) have done an excellent job in giving the hero a good changeover with trendy costumes, and not forgetting Hansika, who looks appealing in the songs. Dhilip Subbarayan takes care of the action choreography and in this film, it is all about boxing. The bulk of the action work takes place in the climax, and it was a decent work from Dhilip. Not too much of an exaggeration but nothing extraordinary, at the same time. But still kudos for him for choreographing apt moves for Sivakarthikeyan. Sreekar Prasad's editing was spot on, especially with the smooth flow of the film and he made sure the film retained both the fantasy and commercial elements, perfectly. Debutante art director, S.Raja Mohan does a pretty eye-catching work, especially with the boxing arena erected for the climax portion. The appealing set gave the film a very glossy and rich look. M.Sukumar, known for his expertise in capturing rustic and jungle atmosphere beautifully with his lenses, impresses us with his cinematography in a typical commercial potboiler such as this, too ! His lighting was brilliant, which gave the film a very glossy and rich color, but the first few minutes showcased his talent once again, with pristine shots of waterfalls and the green forests.
Anirudh Ravichander handles the music and the young chap is in full form, with this 'Maan Karate' album. Most of the songs are chart-toppers and are sensational hits with the youth. "Royapuram Peter" is the opening introductory song for Sivakarthikeyan and is a pure mass type of song. It was shot in and around the slum-like urban areas and the fish market, to project Sivakarthikeyan as a "mass" hero. "Maanja" had a very colorful look with bright and eye-appealing colored attires for the lead pair and backup dancers, and was shot in and around Pondicherry's attractive neighborhoods. "Un Vizhigalil" was the best shot song, which was also shot in Pondicherry, but in the empty and deserted streets, during the dead night. But M.Sukumar made the location look like a place in the fantasy world, with his brilliant lighting work and the color tone used against the lighting. A visual treat, indeed ! "Darling Dambak" was shot in the picturesque fields of Punjab and featured Hansika in a glam avatar. The visuals were catchy here too, especially with the misty feel. "Open the Tasmac" is the groovy gaana song, sung by the gaana legend, composer Deva himself. The song had a simple yet colorful set by S.Raja Mohan, resembling a street and shops and once again highlighted Sivakarthikeyan's improving dance skills. Do check out the special appearances by Anirudh and A.R Murugadoss in the song ! What's more impressive is Anirudh's background score in the film, which actually elevates the mood of the scene by several notches. His groovy and interesting musical touches adds more zing and peppy elements to the proceedings of the film. 'Maan Karate' is certainly another step higher for Anirudh !
A.R Murugadoss takes the credit for story writing and his former assistant K.Thirukumaran debuts in this flick, while taking in charge of screenplay and direction. To put it bluntly, 'Maan Karate' is nowhere near what was promised through the promotions and exaggerated expectations created before the release. The screenplay is just a plain sailing all out, which in other terms we could say "lazy writing", perhaps ? The first half of the film has no implications whatsoever on the film's theme and is just a hodgepodge of boy-gags and contemporary youth jokes, structured according to Sivakarthikeyan's style. What's less impressive with the making, is the manner in which Sivakarthikeyan has been unnecessarily hyped to be somewhat, a big commercial star. There's nothing wrong in being a star, but Sivakarthikeyan's USP is his boy-next-door charm and the down-to-earth sort of appeal, which made him a fan favorite so quickly. But 'Maan Karate' crushes those elements and make us wonder, "Why, Siva ? Why ?". The love segments are just downright silly and lame and the direction seems to be even more lazy. Only the last 30 minutes, seem to have some sort of seriousness, and now everything seems to be overtly melodramatic and 'life-or-death' sort of scenarios, which reminds us of Sivakarthikeyan's not so long ago release, 'Ethir Neechal' all over again ! R.Senthil Kumar's funny dialogues provide some respite, but gags alone does not make an wholesome entertainer, wholesome ! The boxing match sequences, involving Sivakarthikeyan, are just prime examples of farcical writing !
'Maan Karate' - Vijay's super-hit 'Badri' seem like a classic, now !
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
One of the most eagerly spoken about films, is this Dhanush produced 'Ethir Neechal, starring the upcoming hot-shot Sivakarthikeyan and a host of youngsters. Sivakarthikeyan has been notching up the ratings, due to his immense reach, attained during his television days. And the extra USP of having Anirudh as the music director, who dished out chart-busters, once again. It looks like the season of Vetrimaaran's former assistants, coming up with their own directorial ventures, and R.S Durai Senthilkumar joins the fray as well, through 'Ethir Neechal'.
This protagonist role of 'Ethir Neechal' is a tailor-made role for Sivakarthikeyan, who excels in his comic timing. Not just in his dialogue deliveries, but also through facial expressions and body language, which are signs of very good improvement ! He's not bad in the emotional scenes as well, but it was still not good enough to rate his full capability in the acting quotient. Priya Anand breezed through her role as the beautiful girl-next-door teacher. Nandita of 'Attakathi' fame has a more stronger role, but a brief one though, yet she still makes a mark. Satish, as the sidekick of Sivakarthikeyan, was a scream with his in-your-face one-liners and is delight to watch in his combination scenes with Sivakarthikeyan. The next hit-pair ? Most probably ! Jayaprakash and Ravi Prakash, handled their roles very diligently. The rest of the cast such as Suza Kumar, Swaminathan, Manobala, Aarthi, Madan Bob and a cute cameo by 'Attakathi' Dinesh were adequate.
The film carries very neat and crisp technical works from the crew. Anu Parthasarathy's costume designing for Priya Anand was brilliant and Priya was looking gorgeous indeed ! 'Mirattal' Siva's action choreography was functional. G.Durairaj's art direction was very good, as he has maintained high production value, with an obviously low budget. There are plenty of locations in the film such as tailor shop, classrooms, training room, offices and the final marathon sequence, were all well neatly brought out, with the necessary props. G.Durairaj is turning into a favorite among the medium budget producers ! Kishore T.E's editing was flawless, as he keeps the film crisp and the flow of the screenplay, in check. R.Velraj's cinematography is dripping in quality, with apt camera positioning and framing. His camera movement is slick, the cool ambiance was a fine touch and his lighting for the dimly-lit sequences, were brilliant as usual ! Also, R.Velraj camera angles in tight spaces, worked out well for the necessary scenes.
Anirudh Ravichander's music, as mentioned earlier, was brilliant and peppy. The sort of attention-grabbing genre for the youth. "Nijamellam" has Sivakarthikeyan trying to woo Suza Kumar and has cool picturization from R.Velraj. The narrow alleys, wide beach section, crowded bus interiors, were all shot in montages. "Boomi Ennai" was pictured on Sivakarthikeyan falling for Priya Anand and is a another typical dance number with plenty of locations and crisp editing. "Velicha Poove" was the best shot song, in the postcard-worthy locations of Andaman and Nicobar. The camera movement and angles were very good and accentuated the lovely mood of the song, shot on Sivakarthikeyan and the Priya Anand, who was looking gorgeous to the tilt ! "Local Boys" was a super-fast number shot on a bar atmosphere, with plenty of props. The highlight of the song though was the cameo appearances by Dhanush, the classy Nayanthara and also by Anirudh himself ! The title track of "Ethir Neechal" was shot on Sivakarthikeyan and Nandita and has montages of the protagonist going through intensive training for the penultimate marathon episode. "Un Paarvaiyil" was a situational song shot on Sivakarthikeyan setting his sights on Priya Anand for the first time. Anirudh rocks in the background score department as well, with good touches of rock and melody elements. Being an ardent A.R Rahman fan, the background score does have some moments, which were obvious inspirations from A.R Rahman !
R.S Durai Senthilkumar's script, was very simple and straight-forwardly written. There director plays no hanky-panky in the screenplay. The love scenes were cute and amusing, the comedy portions were humorous, thanks to the witty one-liners and the emotional sequences were just nice and was not overtly melodramatic. The debutante director, has extracted exactly what was needed from his cast and his vision of his script, is full of clarity. A subtle message is woven into the screenplay, without being too preachy and obvious. The only downside of the film is that, it might not satisfy all section of audience, as its low in content. The film is not particularly racy, though its commendable that they have kept the length of the film, short. The transition from comedy to seriousness, from the first to second half, was rather formulaic, but the director can be excused, as he has come up with a neat entertainer.
'Ethir Neechal' - delivered nothing more and nothing less than promised. A clean entertainer !
Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
