Maaveeran from Madonne Ashwin is a fabulous example of reinventing the fantasy genre in a way that shreds off the generic tone of storytelling. Madonne Ashwin invests less in being flashy, and what excites you is the smartness in the writing to place the unique element in the story to take things forward. Even though it has a very solid dramatic track, the upper hand of quirky humor makes Maaveeran thoroughly enjoyable.
Sathya is a cartoonist who created these comics named Maaveeran for a newspaper. In real life, Sathya is very fearful and doesn’t even dare to question injustice. When his family was asked to move out of their homes in the slums, he was ready to oblige to that even though his mother raised concerns. Even when the newly given flats started to have issues due to poor construction Sathya was willing to adjust. What we see in Maaveeran is the change that happened in Sathya’s life when he started to hear a voice that predicted the next moment in a comic book style.
The script’s skeleton is obviously the classic idea of the common man rising and fighting against the corrupt system. But Maaveeran is much more fun because it creates a believable and relatable central character whose attitude puzzles even the main villains. Sathya is one guy who is willing to adjust, and that is a helpless scenario we all can relate to. Even when he gets this advantage through that voice he can hear, his effort is to avoid conflicts. In fact, there is a scene where he goes to the antagonist’s house and talks about what is happening to him. Madonne Ashwin uses the reluctance of the hero to accept his incredible ability for many hilarious sequences that were, in a way, breaking a lot of cliches.
Sivakarthikeyan is a perfect choice to play this kind of role as he looks very believable when he switches to the introverted style, and the guy has the swagger when the heroics kick in. Aditi Shankar, with her girl-next-door image, was also an apt choice as the leading lady who isn’t contributing heavily to the story. Saritha as Sathya’s mother, who dares to question injustice, was really good in her role, and the performance never slipped into that typical loud mother character. Ashwin’s first hero Yogi Babu gets a proper character role, and the combination scenes of both Yogi Babu and Sivakarthikeyan were hilarious. Mysskin, as the main antagonist, gets to play multiple shades of that character. From being comical in the beginning to being extremely tough, the transition was smooth. Sunil also gets an interesting character with a negative shade.
If you look at the packaging, Madonne Ashwin is not trying to make it a routine entertainer package. Instead of having a typical hero introduction song, he places that song to take the story forward. Even the romantic song narrates a story rather than being slow-motion montages. The real joy was watching how he places this superpower in the story. It’s a screenplay that frequently applies the “what if” logic to provide something funny or fresh. As I already said, humor has dominance in the way the film approaches its central concept. Even when the movie’s third act takes it to these dark conflicted zones where our hero is helpless, Madonne Ashwin pulls the film out of a possible slump by taking a humorous detour. The second half has too much happening in the story, and hence the graph fluctuates drastically at times. But still, he manages to use the fantasy element convincingly.
The voice that helps Sathya in Maaveeran is given by Vijay Sethupathi, and since we know his face and the grace in his voice, it is actually helping the film to switch gears in certain areas. If you are a sucker for a less splashy take on superhero-like concepts that use the idea to entertain the audience rather than the visual grandeur, Maaveeran will definitely impress you.
If you are a sucker for a less splashy take on superhero-like concepts that use the idea to entertain the audience rather than the visual grandeur, Maaveeran will definitely impress you.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
