What Is the Story About?
Maaran (Dhanush) is an upright investigative journalist who takes on the powerful people in society. He loses his father for the same reason and his mother passes away delivering his sister. A kid himself, Maaran raises her himself. While unearthing an EVM scam, he gets himself and his sister into trouble, what happens next forms the rest of the story.
Performances?
Dhanush has performed well in the character of an investigative journalist and a dotting brother. But when we ask a question if he is at his best? – definitely not. The writing is so poor that either of the character shades is not established well and so, there is not much scope for performance.
In the end, we feel Dhanush has done well but not to what we expect from him. It’s not the case only with Dhanush, it happens with every one in the film due to bad writing. Malavika Mohanan is the female lead in the film and she plays Dhanush’s colleague. It is more of a sidekick role and barely has anything significant. Smruthi Venkat plays the sister role and she is again okay. Samuthirakani plays a baddie politician and is fine in whatever offered it. Mahendran plays the police officer and is strictly okay. Ramki plays a small role in the flashback and is fine.
Analysis
A film is all about a good story and how it is grippingly narrated. Maaran is primarily an investigative journalist’s story and the conflict in the story arrives due to the sister character. That implies we should have strong portions of a gripping investigative story and emotions. But Maaran has neither.
The film starts with the flashback of how Maaran’s father gets killed while exposing a scam. His mother passes away delivering his sister. Maaran has to raise her himself. The father’s final words and the oath to protect his sister forms the crux of the hero character. It is good on paper but we do not have any strong scenes to establish it.
Once the story moves to the present, the bonding between the hero and his sister is never showcased. Only once an attempt is made when she gets injured in a park fight but it is so toothless. The investigative journalism in the EVM Scam is of the stone age material. We may have seen that in NTR, ANR, Rajinikanth films of the 1980s. The love track is one more disaster.
The events that follow and the sister sentiment that comes later are written very badly. The hero going after the culprits trying to solve the case also does not offer anything new. The so-called twists which the director may have considered as ‘twists’ bore us completely. The whodunnit portions are not handled well. The only surprise comes towards the end but by that time, viewers are completely exhausted and leave all hopes of any redemption. There is a good 20 minutes film after that with another mini flashback and it is again boring.
Finally, Maaran is that kind of a film that shows the mirror for Dhanush. The actor of his potential should make wise choices or else, we keep getting this kind of films.
Music and Other Departments?
Karthick Naren is the major culprit of the film with insipid work in the writing and direction departments. GV Prakash has come up with disappointing songs. The background score, however, is good in bits and pieces. Vivekanand Santhosham’s cinematography is also disappointing and adds to the ‘routine/old’ story. Prasanna GK’s editing is again a weak link.
Highlights?
Short Runtime
The final twist
Drawbacks?
Bad Story and Poor execution
Bland Writing
Lack of proper emotions
Weak investigation part
Did I Enjoy It?
No
Will You Recommend It?
No
Maaran Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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