Minnaminungu

Apart from the sensational portrayal of Surabhi Lakshmi, everything else in the latest movie Minnaminungu is pretty much on the average zone. A story that doesn’t really encapsulate the emotions with sensible amount of drama is taken to a whole new level by the leading lady and she manages to disturb you with her performance.

A middle aged woman is our central protagonist (her name is never mentioned in the film). She is a widow who has a 70 year old father and a college going daughter. She takes care of her daughter’s education by working at multiple places and each day is a war for the poor lady. At one point her daughter comes to her with a request (more of a demand) for Rs 6 Lakhs for higher studies and the basic plot of the film is based on what all things the mother had to do to get this money on time.

The story is the routine one that shows the hardships of the underprivileged in the society. We have seen many movies with such plot and only the ones that approached the subject refreshingly or intensely have managed to please us. In the case of Minnaminungu, the story and the screenplay isn’t that absorbing. Most of the plot points are somewhat predictable. With the character actors in the film having the tone of stage drama performances, the film is somewhat struggling to add realness to the narrative. But that is where Surabhi Lakshmi single handedly took the movie to a better space. She becomes the character effortlessly and when the film reaches its last 15 minutes there is no denying in the fact that you will feel the emotional turmoil of that character.

From the body language to the way she looks at people, Surabhi Lakshmi transforms brilliantly. She nails the dialect skillfully and like I already said, the performance in the last fifteen minutes is heartening.  Other actors in the movie aren’t that popular except for Prem Prakash. While everyone else struggled with the melodrama in characterization and drama in dialogues, Surabhi never fails for a second. The only other flawless performance in the movie was from Krishnan Balakrishnan.

There are no off beat gimmicks from Anil Thomas in the making. But he hasn’t managed to treat the subject in a unique way to intensify the situation. Manoj Ram Singh’s writing also causes issues as it reduces the realness because of the clichés. If the communication between the characters were a little less verbal, I think the emotions would have got conveyed in a stronger way. Cinematography was okay and I liked the extremely zoomed out helicam shots which somehow conveyed the terrible lonely state of our leading lady.

Minnaminungu is actually an average drama that gets elevated simply because of the riveting performance of its leading lady Surabhi Lakshmi. You should watch it at least to acknowledge her performance in the film.

Rating: 3/5