Director Pandiraj whose last, "Vamsam" was a decent entertainer is back to his forte, that is children's genre. His much acclaimed "Pasanga" is still fondly remembered for the sweet screenplay and the message it delivered. With Marina, he has a different canvass to handle, that is the livelihood of child workers, toiling daily in the second-longest beach in the world. With kids in the fray the movie is expected to throw off some decent moments and also some worthy laughs since it's the launch vehicle for popular TV host Siva Karthikeyan. Did Pandiraj retain the same magic in "Marina" as well?
Though the film was marketed with Siva Karthikeyan and Oviya as the lead pair, in actual truth they are just a part of the film and the story revolves around child actor 'Pakoda' Pandian and his traverse in surviving in the beaches of Marina. Besides him, the film has a glut of child actors and each one of them have been realistic to the core and the projections of their characteristics helps to retain the natural feel and look of the actors. Besides that, there are a host of sub-characters like the horseman, Sundararajan as the old beggar, Arumugham as the performer and his daughter, Jithan Mohan as the postman and etc who actually help the kids' characters to be well established. Siva Karthikeyan, Oviya and Gautham Purushoth were average and it must have been a cakewalk for all of them. Siva Karthikeyan's character was not well etched out as well and he misses his comedy timing most of the time, which actually steals away the funny moments. Jayaprakash and Senthikumari had decent roles and played out their part well. On the whole, it was a decent performance from all the artistes.
The technical department has a decent work as well with cinematographer Vijay surprising us with couple of well composed shots, especially the placement of cameras in the horse, running and cycle race competitions. Besides that, the long aerial shot used just before the interval was very well executed. Vijay manages to capture the look and feel of Marina beach which is very essential for the script. Athiappan Siva's editing and Crawford's art direction was neat and simple. Newcomer Girishh.G's music was mild but the "Vanakkam Chennai" song stands out for the breezy tune. His re-recording impresses in bits and pieces.
The answer for the earlier question is, Pandiraj did not succeed to retain the same magic he had in "Pasanga" for "Marina". The whole movie has a documentary feel to it and many scenes did not connect with each other in an engaging manner, which lets the script down and makes it a boring viewing experience for the viewers. Though the film has a very decent message to convey, the slow and uninspiring screenplay fails to deliver the message in a thumping manner. Dialogues are creative though, with cute touches like Gautham's interesting sayings on love, the kids frank speeches during the interview episode and also was touching especially for Sundararajan's episode. Also there are some funny moments in the film involving Siva Karthikeyan, like his 'budget calculations', his 'revenge' method on Oviya and the 'surprise gift' all subtle humors. Pandiraj did a decent job with characterizations.
Overall, a movie with decent message and story but then poor screenplay and script.
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
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