MURATTU KAALAI MOVIE REVIEW

'Murattu Kaalai', the remake of the evergreen Rajinikanth-Jaishankar classic was long overdue, with the production beginning in the year 2009. After three years, the film made it for release, and three years in Tamizh cinema is a big gap, because of the sea of constant changes we see in trends, artistes and etc. This film was started with the intention of reaping in the sudden popularity of Sundar.C as an actor but the scene has completely changed now, with him back to direction and, winning-ways as well with his recently released 'Kalakalappu'. Will this film reap any benefits by releasing?

Sundar.C, sadly did not and will not be able to match the charisma and energetic performance of Rajinikanth in the original. His good height and big size gives him a 'macho' halo around him but sadly, the performance is nothing extraordinary. Suman did a typical village villainous influential man. Nothing to talk about. Sindhu Tolani is there just for the glam appeal. Sneha has nothing much to offer, performance wise and shows a little skin here and there. Vivek as a transgender/transvestite was in his usual manner. Good body language and dialogue delivery but not all of his jokes evokes laughter, including the '16 Vayadhiniley' spoof with his regular partner "Cell" Murugan was insipid. The cast just did what they were asked to do and not perform out the character.

Technically the film has poor quality. Stunts by Silva was over-the-top most of the time, and only the climax fight on the train was a little decent. Shankar's art direction was minimal and detailing were not properly highlighted with simple pieces of work in songs as well. Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B's fast-cutting helps the movie to go a little faster but nothing to impressive. Santtonio Tarziio's cinematography was pretty average and the opening song, as well as the climax fight sequence on the train was captured properly, though shaky at times. Srikanth Deva's tunes were very, very average. The iconic and legendary "Pothuvaaga En Manasu" song was lukewarm and dull though it was picturized on a grand scale with lots of fanfare. "Sundara" and "Bhonda" songs, the first on Sundar.C-Sneha and the latter on Sundar.C-Sindhu Tolani was poor with some montage sequences in the middle and the same orchard, paddy fields, barren lands used as the backdrop. "Punnagai" song picturized against the backdrop of a monument, also fails to impress. The background score reminds one of Deva's works and his contradicting sound plays, was weird.

The biggest flaw of the film is the screenplay and writing by K.Selva Baarathi. It was unimpressive, boring and lacks any energy. The director failed to tap genuine performances from his artistes, making them look like caricatures.

'Murattu Kaalai' has nothing to benefit from and the original should have been left untouched.


Ratings: 1/5 STARS

By:TAMIL