The thing about these wild card movies are really annoying, they don’t make any noise, come rather too quietly but capture our hearts by surprise! Debut director Saravanan handles Maragatha Naanayam like a pro by including more than a dozen actors also giving them enough justice to their roles. The director takes a blender, mixes fantasy, humor, horror and a few light hearted twists to give a complete light hearted entertainer in Maragatha Naanayam. This definitely is Aadhi’s much deserved break and will definitely be turning point for all other characters too.
At a time when ghost movies are becoming stereotypical in Kollywood, Saravanan’s surprises us with a complete new variety of cinema experience as he indulges in touch basing various genres. The attempt is fresh and new, which makes it a must watch, the current age of directors seem to decode that clean humor does not need a mainstream comedian nor some filthy joke, but just brilliance in handling a script with cheeky dialogues. Aadhi and Daniel joins hands with a local smuggler (Munishkanth) to goof up some money to clear their long pending loans, this brings them in a heist operation that involves stealing an invaluable emerald (Maragatha Naanayam) which has a cursed history of brining death upon whoever touches it. Their journey takes them on a roll as they encounter spirits, voodoo magic and a lot of heist drama.
ARK Saravanan takes time to build his characters, to an extent it becomes so daunting and exhaustive till the first half, but once done, the justification is extremely acceptable. Without giving away much spoilers, the characters of Munishkanth, Nikki Galrani, Mime Gopi, Arunraja kamaraj are one of the most interesting seen off late, sprinkled with nice dosage of humor. They glue the storyline with their roles, even though Saravanan could have established their characterization rather quickly. Likewise Anandraj as Twinkle Ramanathan starts of as a seriously funny gangster, the antics getting you down on laughter initially, but too many repetitions rather gives away the gag.
Aadhi and Daniel lead the way, their desperation in the heist is ushered, but knowing the consequences they become wary, so they get into the groove of things rather cautiously. Aadhi’s natural acting comes to the rescue, he doesn’t try to fit into that HERO material with desperation, instead becomes that director’s artist. Daniel likewise has come a long way from the days of "Friendu feel aitapla" and is fast rising with his comical attributes as a decent sidekick/comedian. Rest of the cast are utilized brilliantly with a few cameos for Bramanadam, Kota Srinivas Rao and MS Bhaskar to satisfy the Telugu audience likely. But the winner of the day surely is Munishkanth, he deserves an applause for being that comedian who can do character roles when required, sentiment when needed and still be comical without losing grip of his suspense role.
Maragatha Naanayam steals majorly on few aspects; Its fresh take on fantasy with leisure use of humor, the ghost characters who complete the plot with a quirky voiceover, some light hearted comic elements that demystifies the seriousness in a wacky style, finally for some clean and renewed handling of the script. The songs that silently flow behind the screenplay and make an impact with a roll licking BGM. With fantasy, the VFX used in certain sequences are straight on and natural, kudos!
Overall, Maragatha Naanayam has a few shortfalls like length and stretched comedy, however they are way too minimal comparing to the film’s entertainment quotient. Go for it!
Verdict : Guaranteed entertainment
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