Panja, Kuppan,Kumar and Saamy help their friend Sathish to marry his girlfriend Sangeetha amidst opposition from the families of the groom and the bride and continue to live normal lives in the tourist town of Mahabalipuram. With Panja too eventually falling in love with Maha, life seems just perfect for this gang of friends until the untimely death of the newlywed that throws out all the joy. Pure bad luck and coincidence breaks up the gang and how the events unfold in time for a final twist in the tale is what we get to see in Mahabalipuram.
Language:
Tamil
Running Time:
111 min
Rating:
U/A
Release date:
13 March 2015
Directed by:
Don Sandy
Produced by:
Vinayak Mani
Written by:
Don Sandy
Starring:
Karunakaran
Ramesh Thilak
Karthik Sabesh
Vinayak
Vetri
Angana Roy
Vithika Sheru
Music by:
K
Shot by:
Chandran Pattuswamy
Editing by:
Kim Aam
Distributed by:
Nathambal Film Factory

What’s Hot

  • Much of the poor placement of songs is compensated by the quality of Music that ‘K’ renders with a couple of soothing melodies in Usurey Nee… and Athaadi Yenna Solla… along with a peppy dance number just to keep the energy afloat. The background scores in the suspenseful climax is again a high point reminiscent of what he did in Mugamoodi.
  • Vinayak makes an earnest attempt at portraying Panja who tries to balance his love life and his loyalty towards his guardian who lives a greyish life. Though amateurish at places, he makes amends in the climax with a fine blend of emotion and determination.
  • Ramesh Thilak as Kuppan who uses his English proficiency to make a living as a guide and ends up winning the heart of a foreigner as well, is another welcome presence in the cast as he successfully recreates his magic from Soodhu Kavvum.
  • The rare occurrence of a movie running well under 2 hours sure needs special mention. The director Don Sandy and editor Kim Aam have made conscious effort to not show the obvious in much detail which has helped their cause which makes the climax more effective than the other portions of the movie.

What’s Not

  • The movie claims to be based on true events but a disclaimer at the start that says any semblances to people living or dead puts us at confusion and that pretty much summarizes the writing of the movie. Even more appalling is the heinous acts the bad ones do with no proper justification having shown them all in a different light earlier.
  • Poor character progressions like that of Kumar played by Karunakaran where he is forcefully made to look like a jerk in the latter portions just for some unrealistic political ambitions he nurtures. Vithika seemingly brushes off her angry outburst at indecent actions from Vinayak and is seen flirting with him at a party soon after, which is another such instance.
  • Angana Roy and (Vetri as Sathish) put up ordinary acting at most places which is not consistent with expectations of the silver screen standards and too melodramatic like the good old television soaps. Some of the dialogues are borderline offensive like the one which Angana Roy mouths as Sangeetha, which discriminates boys and girls by their looks in an attempt to explain how they find matches exceeding their capabilities.
  • Despite a short run time and a nice paced ending, the first half doesn’t really concur with or build up to the all important climax as much of the time is devoted to fruitless song sequences and comedy scenes which make it two disconnected experiences before and after the intermission.

Badges

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

‘Mahabalipuram’ turns out to be an ordinary attempt at making a movie that aims to create awareness on anti-social elements lurking too close for recognition, but struggles to put the message out due to lousy execution and fails to create the desired impact and gets lost somewhere out there to end up being a no show!