Rathna Kumar has attempted a hilarious take on modern one sided love laden with humor, with a strong undercurrent of friendship which comes across as a mixed bag in the end.
Idhayam Murali (Vaibav) so called because like his famous namesake actor, he harbors.one sided love for S. Madumitha (Priya Bhavani Shankar). When the girl gets engaged to an American Mappillaiyai, Murali informs his friends (Vivek Prasanna and Arun Prasad) that he is going to end his life which is what he usually does when drunk. The friends wanting to put an end to the torture approach the girl and ask her to speak to him and insult him so that he would forget her. But the plan misfires giving rise to a few hilarious and an equal number of contrived sequences that lead to a climax whether the boy and girl get together or not. There is a more interesting subplot involving the hero's sister Sudar (Indhuja) in love with her brother's friend Vinod (Vivek Prasanna) resenting the fact that he too considers her his sister.
Vaibav,one of the most versatile and under used an actor in Kollywood turns in another great performance after his scene stealng one in 'Chennai 600028 2'. His comic timing is perfect and he keeps it going throughout the film. Likewise, he is also in top form in the emotional scenes, especially in the hospital when he realized that his friends had duped him into believing his girl as a bad person. Reminiscent of a younger Revathi, Priya Bhavani Shankar makes an impressive debut and besides her looks she also seems to posses all the right expressions for a long stay in Kollywood. Vivek Prasanna seen mostly in villainous roles so far gives an unforgettable performance as the loyal friend and an unlikely lover. He also saves the viewer from a very damp climax Bravo! Indhuja as the firebrand sister Sudar is a an immensely talented girl who overshadows everyone in almost all her scenes. Arun Prasath and Amrutha Srinivasan as the hero and heroine's friends respectively, are the other noticeable performer while the philosophy mouthing little boy in the garage is a scream.
Thematically 'Meyaadha Maan' shines in it's depiction of friendship. Humor is the backbone of the screenplay and wherever it works with it does to the hilt. The North Madras flavor is retained delightfully in all the scenes.
On the downside, both Vaibav's and Priya's characters are written on flimsy grounds and for that reason one is never convinced about the upper classiest girl choosing the local bum and going to the extent of beating him. If she is such a progressive thinking girl she could have easily put it across to her parents or ditched them in the first place. The pace of the screenplay nosedives in the second half and never recovers. To sum it up you go in to watch the Vaibav-Priya story, but come out carrying the Vivek-Indhuja one in your minds.
The Pradeep Kumar-Santhosh Narayanan musical combo give a virtual concert of folk,Western and gaana and the background score too is outstanding.The other technical aspects are sound under Karthick Subbaraj's maiden production. Debutante Rathna Kumar has shown good command over extracting performances from his cast and narration and shows great promise for the future.
Verdict : Go for this fun ride with a fairly engaging screenplay.
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