Manoja, a girl accustomed with the western style of life and a typically introvert Prabhu, who has never been with a girl in his life. These two getting married – sounds impossible right? But that’s what arranged marriages can do! With Manoja and Prabu having different ideas about marriage and sex, they start off on the wrong foot and separate when the unthinkable happens on their path to harmony. Are they able to mend their ways again? – The answer to which is what the rest of the movie walks us through.
Language:
Tamil
Running Time:
123 min
Rating:
A
Release date:
1 January 2016
Directed by:
Gitanjali Selvaraghavan
Produced by:
Kancharla Pardhasaradhi
Kola Bhaskar
Written by:
Selvaraghavan
Starring:
Balakrishna Kola
Wamiqa Gabbi
Kalyani Natarajan
Parvathy Nair
Music by:
Amrit
Shot by:
Sridhar
Editing by:
Rukesh
Distributed by:
Volmart Films Sai Release

What’s Hot

  • A bold attempt by the debutant director Gitanjali to take up the lesser explored drawbacks with arranged marriages including the sensitive issue of the thin line that separates consensual sex from marital rape. She does a fine job one must say with the characters as well – refreshing to see a daughter and mother have a frank relationship.
  • The Selvaraghavan touch is seen all over the relationship with his typically short and open ended conversations which are written well and ably supported by natural and inhibited dialogues which he is known for. The father-son exchanges are again made enjoyable just like in his 7/G Rainbow Colony , though a lot mellow here.
  • Wamiqa Gabbi makes an impressive debut in Tamil as a very hateful young lady who has had troubles with relationships one way or the other because of sex. Though her placid facial reactions could be the director’s influence, her cute looks and expressive eyes carrying the emotions of hate and sadness, make up for it.
  • Debutant Amrit has churned out a couple of lingering melodies including the titular song. His background score is also a game changer especially in the scene where the couple go on a date and many others where they are at the logger heads.

What’s Not

  • Drawing comparisons with plenty of Selvaraghavan movies is unavoidable be it the lead man’s looks and voice modulations and not to forget an egoistic affluent lead lady – 7/G Rainbow Colony and Mayakkam Enna to name a few.
  • With an ‘A’ certificate in the bag, there are beeps aplenty some of which defy creative liberty such as the abuse dished by Prabu and his friends in a bar leading up to the customary song along with dance in a drunken state – the entire sequence was a bust and did no justice to the story to warrant a place in the movie.
  • The climax was not convincing one bit considering the events shown until then, or maybe the parts that influenced the outcome of the ending were not given enough emphasis to make us believe. This kind of brought down the impact a few notches.

Badges

Music
Dialogues
Direction

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam is a comprehensive take on relationships and arranged marriages which is made in a bold fashion and greatly benefits from the fresh blood in the form of a debutant director and fresh faces to Tamil cinema. Despite a weak ending, it’s a well-conceived movie that can strike the right chord with adults.