Shaji Kailas’s return to his old school for a revamp was an impressive attempt. Even though the movie wasn’t up to the level of a perfect family fun movie, it had its moments of fun and could well satisfy you if your expectation from Mr Shaji Kailas is very low.
Well the movie narrates the story of a family man Chandran Pillai who lives a happy life with his son. His wife passed away years ago and his son’s teacher has love interest in him. To fulfill his son’s aspiration of becoming a good cyclist he decides to go to Madirashi, a town near Coimbatore to buy the cycle. With some unfortunate incidents happening on the day of their arrival, Chandran and his friend gets stuck in Madirashi and are also plunged in to trouble. How they manage to get out of this trouble and how they exposes the baddies in this journey is the soul of Madirashi.
The Plot doesn’t have much to claim as fresh as we have seen this kind of stories were the main protagonist gets into trouble after going to some unknown territories. What the makers have tried to do here is to add some fun element into it. The problem of the movie is the placing of this added fun flavor. At times it’s disturbingly too much and there are moments where it is not at all required. Even though the performances are good, the lack of energy in the content spoils the fun.
On screen, Jayaram repeats himself in a typical role of a family man. Tini Tom gives the audience some good time to laugh with his natural counters. Meera Nandan portrays the role of Bhama with ease and I liked the bubbly nature of the character. Meghna Raj was cool as Maya. The best performer of the movie was indeed John Vijay as the Villain SP. Rest of the cast was also good in their characters.
Direction wise, Shaji Kailas has tried his best to keep it simple. But his style was partially visible at occasions and it helped the movie. The script is a flawed one with uneven mix of emotions. The script seems to be confused at times whether they want it as a pure comedy or as an emotional family movie. The last half an hour of the movie was quite unconvincing. The BGM was satisfying and Shaji’s cinematography was good in capturing the beauty of village.
On the whole, Madirashi is a below average product from Shaji Kailas. I am giving it a 2/5 and if your expectation is low you might give it a 2.5/5 considering the fun element.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
