Mariyan

Based on the real life stories of many Indian workers who faced severe trauma during their life in the northern parts of African continent, Mariyan from director Bharath Bala is a romantic drama that scores mainly for the performance of its lead pair. Even though the film is quite weak in terms of scripting, this Dahnush starrer will not let you down totally if you are willing to consider acting and some technical aspects.

The plot here revolves around the life of the title protagonist. Mariyan is basically a fisherman and he was quite reluctant to go abroad for a living. But certain circumstances in his love life oblige him to go to Africa. After two years of hard work in the Dark Continent, Mariyan is returning to his home land to meet his sweet heart Panimalar. With some rebel terrorists in Sudan kidnapping Mariyan, his journey faces a dead end. How Mariyan survives this tough phase and how his romance aids him in this journey is what the film all about.

It’s not that typical Tamil film, where the hero is given a separate space to show his heroics. Mariyan has his safe zones and weaknesses. What is missing in this romantic drama is the pivotal emotion of romance. Bharath Bala depicts the relationship of Mariyan and Panimalar through a flashback narrative. Panimalar is the one after Mariyan and the weak script just can’t convince the audience in establishing that selfless bonding between the lead pair. Because of that, we can’t really get in to that feel as the title character continues to struggle. But in those last half an hour of the total run time where our hero is in the last stage of his fight, the film goes through its most impressive phase were almost everything goes in sync. The edits, the direction, the visuals, background scores and the performances of the lead pair makes this phase so delightful and in a way manages to cover the dullness of the rest of the movie.

In the making, Bharath Bala has tried to keep it normal. He has squeezed out the best from his actors. What is low for Mariyan is definitely its script that fails to root the emotions convincingly. Even then it has managed to show some impressive sequences like the scene were Dhanush and Jagan starts to imagine having food and that conversation between Mariyan and Panimalar on phone. Those sequences were quite emotional but never went to a melodramatic level. The cinematography is superb. Fine edits by Vivek harshan and fitting background scores and music from A R Rahman.

Dhanush has delivered a magnificent performance as Mariyan and deserves some acknowledgment. His performance in those last sequences was really heart touching. Parvathy Menon surprises everyone in her smart avatar. The girl has that energy and beauty to impress the viewers and it’s these two actors who literally carry the movie. Salim Kumar, Appukutty, Vinayakan and Jagan have done their part nicely.

Overall, Mariyan is an average film that has above average performances and sound technical backup. I am giving the film a 3/5. Life of Mariyan needs a bit more life.