MANNARU – REVIEW
Appukutty, after Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai became popular with his ‘village simpleton’ looks and performance. Debutant director Jayashankar in his Mannar has reworked the character based on Appukutty’s image.
Once again Appukutty goes through the village simpleton act which he does with consummate ease, in a film which has no story or script. There are too many loopholes in the script which tries to work more on Appukutty’s image rather than narration.
Mannaru (Appukutty) is a village simpleton who does the odd job but is a dullard. Mannar is persuaded by one of his friends an upmarket IT guy (!!) to escort his newlywed wife Anjali (Swathy) as her father wants her to marry the son of the local MLA.
It leads to complications in our hero’s life and a lot of misunderstandings. Mannaru’s dad hates him while his ‘Murrai Ponnu’ Mallika is crazy about him. Meanwhile Anjali’s family comes to the village in search of her leading to more problems. How the good hearted Mannaru sorts out all issues and runs to save his lady love from a ‘forced wedding forms the rest of the predictable story with practically no twists.
The major trouble with the film is Thambi Ramaiah’s script and dialogues which are old fashioned and etched out of 80’s village tearjerkers. He does not know whether to make it a full length comedy or a sentimental hogwash. The films length (2 hrs and 30 minutes) is a big let-down, with a long drawn out climax which fizzles out at the end.
The Theni-Kodai locations are eye catching, though music is just average. Appukutty does what is expected from him, but he is definitely getting typecast. Debutant actress Vaishali as the plain Jane Malika is a revelation. Mannar falls between two stools and is not convincing.
