Maaran - A forgettable thriller drama that falls flat
Dhanush teamed up with promising young filmmaker Karthick Naren, who made an impressive debut with 'Dhuruvangal 16', for the thriller drama 'Maaran'. The inception surrounding the movie just got bigger when the acclaimed Malayali writer duo Suhas-Sharfu, who penned Fahad Faasil starrer gruesome thriller 'Varathan', boarded the project. But let's see if Dhanush's third consecutive OTT release, 'Maaran', has made the cut.
The story follows the lives of Mathimaaran (Dhanush) and Shwetha (Smruthi Venkat), the children of the truthful and courageous journalist Sathyamoorthy (Ramki), who loses his life for publishing the truth. Maaran too chooses his late father's path and locks horns with ex-minister Pazhani (Samuthirakani) by exposing his election scam but loses his dear sister in the battle. The rest of the film proceeds as a whodunit drama.
Mathimaaran seems to be one of the average performances of Dhanush in his career but can't complain much as the character was poorly penned. With that being said, even Dhanush can't save this film. Smruthi Venkat has done graceful work as Shwetha. The movie has a hoard of other actors including the female lead Malavika Mohanan but there was hardly any scope for the other characters in the film to showcase their skills.
Maaran is the most sluggish effort from Karthik Naren yet and it is safe to say that the producers made the right call to skip the theatrical release. It is yet another Tamil movie that has a potential storyline to keep the audience engaged but falls flat due to uninteresting writing. There wasn't a proper flow in the screenplay to an extent that at a certain point, Maaran feels like a collage of multiple scenes without sync.
If Karthick Naren had thought at least 50% out of the box as he did in Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru or Project Agni, he could have made a racy action thriller in the likes of KV Anand's "Ko". But instead, he chose the beaten to death 'Annan-Thangachi sentiment' as a plotline and presented us with an age-old screenplay that can be easily predicted by even a school kid. The twist and turns were also a major letdown from someone like Karthick.
GV Prakash has done a neat job with the songs and background scores. One of the major reliefs in the film was that the makers had not placed unwanted songs to make it more tiring. Vivekanand Santhosham has provided what he is asked of with the visuals and Prasanna GK managed to keep the movie in a limited duration, which is a good thing.
Verdict: Even Dhanush can't save this tiring thriller drama.
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