Manmadha Baanam Movie Review

Manmadha Baanam Movie Review

Banner: Lakshmi Ganapathi Films
Cast: Kamal Hassan, Trisha, Madhavan, Sangeetha
Story: Kamal Haasan, Crazy Mohan
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Producer: Udhayanidhi Stalin
Director: K. S. Ravikumar

Story:

Ambujakshi aka Nisha (Trisha) is a film heroine who falls in love with a multi millionaire Madan Gopal (Madhavan). Madan doesn’t believe in Nisha due to her profession. He thinks that she is having affairs with her costars. Their love is broken due to misunderstandings. However, both Ambu and Madan can’t forget each other even after many days. Madan appoints an Ex Army major R. Bushanam (Kamal Haasan) to spy on Ambu, who is on a holiday trip to Europe along with her close friend Deepa (Sangeetha). Bushanam does this detective business as he in dire need of money as his friend Raja (Ramesh Arvind) is on the death bed fighting with cancer.

Bushanam tries to loyal to Madan at the beginning but the latter deceives him at one point. So Bushanam applies negative tactics to have Madan in control. There is a twist in the tale towards the interval point.The rest of the story is how Bhushanam managed to go by and made it to a happy ending.


Performances:

Kamal Hassan steals the show with his comic timing. He looks very normal in this film with his usual off-screen look. He did a fine job in doing nice comedy. Trisha is cute and demure. Trisha did a sensible job in her role of candid lover. She is extremely beautiful and very natural in the film. Dubbing by Chinmayi for Trisha is excellent. Manmadha banam marks the comeback of Madhavan in south, he did a fine job as a possessive lover. Sangeetha is extremely well in her role, she is terrific through out the second half, Anchor Jhansi lends her voice for this character and it is apt. Ramesh Arvind, Urvasi & Usha Uthap did a commendable job. The kid who did the role of Sangeetha’s son was good.

Analysis:

Understandably this movie starts off with a snail pace as the director takes time to elevate Madan’s character. Unfortunately the director maintains his snail pace even after getting into the actual story. Movie runs with a speed which can even beat a snail in slowness at times. The story is good and the conflicts are perfectly set. Even few sequences are good with thought provoking dialogue. However, it is the pace of the film that keeps you off the screen. Few scenes are dragged to the maximum that you lose patience and move uneasily in your seat. Even you might slip into sleep if you haven’t had a good night sleep.

The story never picks up pace at all and at one point you wonder that the projector might have forgotten to put an interval card. Even the interval twist can be predicted as enough clues are given by then. Second half starts on the same note but the film starts to irritate you as the characters turn out to be annoying from this point. The only best part that can be remembered and praised about is the way the flashback of Kamal is picturized. Showing his flashback episode completely in a rewind mode with a song playing in the background is good technique.

The film is almost over after Kamal narrates his flashback and the director then started to pull out a comedy out of this by creating lot of confusion among the characters. That has boomeranged and kicks out the little enthusiasm and energy out of you as the characters takes you out to an unbearable fun ride.
Cinematography is rich and sophisticated. Music by Devisri Prasad is not bad. Editing is too bad. At least 40 min of runtime can be edited out from this film. Story written by Kamal Haasan is good. Screenplay spoiled the fun especially in the second half. Production values are rich. Europe locations are a treat to watch.KS Ravi Kumar has given some memorable comedies with Kamal Haasan in the past. But Manmadha Banam comes nowhere near to any of it. To sum it up Manmadha Banam is more of a romantic tragedy than romantic comedy!

Plus Points: Kamal Haasan,Screenplay

Minus points: Snail pace,Irritating second half ,Unbearable climax

Verdict: First half of the film was exceptionally well. The second half becomes little boring with routine confusion comedy reminds of Kamal’s Panchatantram, as there is no story. But Kamal’s action and KS Ravi Kumar’s direction makes the viewers to be glued to their seats.

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