Kaliayarasan and Kaali Venkat have carved a niche for themselves in Kollywood with notable supporting characters and in ‘Raja Mandhiri’ they have acted as the lead characters. With this film, Usha Krishnan a former associate of Suseenthiran, has proved yet again that female directors who are generally stereotyped with women centric films, are no inferior to male counterparts in making enjoyable entertainers with comedy, romance and sentiment.

Surya (Kaali Venkat ) and Karthi (Kalaiyarasan) are brothers belonging to a middle class family living in a village. While the elder shoulders the family by taking care of the family business, the younger roams around freely, spending his brother’s hard earned money.

Surya falls in love with Mahalakshmi (Vaishal), his neighbour. While he tries to impress his love, they get separated due to a quarrel between the two families. Karthi on the other hand goes to college in the nearby city and wins the heart of his classmate Subha (Shalin Zoya). Surya’s parents fix an alliance for him and incidentally the girl is Subha.

Now Karthi cannot reveal his love affair to his brother but has to break the alliance to save his love. And he has to do that without causing any harm to his affectionate and innocent elder brother who has been everything to him since young age.  How he does that forms the rest.

Debutante director Usha Krishnan has succeeded in giving an enjoyable rural family entertainer that is predominantly comical, partly emotional and retains the apt rural flavor. While the comic portions have worked out hilariously the emotional sequences make the right impact. The brotherhood relationship which has been rarely explored in Tamil films has been handled very well in this film.

There is hardly anything new in the story or any twist or turn except a shock element in the interval block. The film moves on predictable lines and depends on convenient turn of events. Still the film manages to keep the viewer engaged and entertained for most parts.

Kalaiyarasan proves to be the apt choice for a playful and smart rural youngster who becomes serious in the second half. Kaali Venkat proves himself as a seasoned actor with his portrayal of an innocent, responsible and affectionate rural man. While his sincere attempts to impress his lover in the first half are likeable, his emotional acting in a couple of scenes in the second half leaves a lump on throat. Both the heroines Zoya and Vaishali look homely and have also acted well.

Bala Saravanan is a scream and ensures a laugh out loud moment in most of the scenes he appears. All the other supporting actors such as the over sentimental father (Nadodigal Gopal), the drunkard Chithappu (Saravanasakthi), the drunkard astrologer (Gajaraj), the alliance broker (Super Good Subramani) and others have done their part neatly. The casting director deserves credit for bringing in the right faces that exactly match the rural milieu of the film.

Justin Prabhakar’s songs are passable. The ‘Leguva’ duet number deserves repeated hearing. Re-recording is apt. P.G.Muthiah’s cinematography provides a refreshing rural treat.

Verdict: ‘Raja Mandhiri’ is a rural entertainer that has lot of laughs and some good emotional moments and it will be a safe bet for this weekend to enjoy with family.