How many of you or your parents had owned a Maruthi? Well mine certainly did in the early 90s & the first one that we had was of an apple green colour. I certainly won't call myself a car enthusiast though when Sethu's "Maheshum Maruthiyum" was announced, it did seem like an interesting subject. Well it certainly started off promisingly but soon enough it became evident that Sethu had no clue as to how to keep the audience engaged.
This is Sethu's second directorial venture after "Oru Kuttanadan Blog'' which was a classic example of a haphazard script. Anyway things hasn't changed much in his latest venture as well which is packaged as a motivational drama. So we have the protagonist, Mahesh (Asif Ali) being invited to a talk show addressed as a successful business icon where he narrates about his journey to the top. It all began with his father, Padmanabhan (Maniyanpilla Raju) being one among the first few proud owners of the Maruti 800 when it was launched in the country in 1983 with the keys handed over to him by the then PM, Indira Gandhi. Mahesh absolutely adored the car & it stayed in the family through thick & then, despite constant pressure to sell it off to ease their financial burden. It was at this juncture that his childhood friend, Gauri (Mamta Mohandas) came into his life & the events that unfolded subsequently formed the basis of the movie.
One of the biggest challenge for such kind of movies is that we already know that the protagonist has achieved his aim & hence it becomes comparatively tougher for the maker to craft a convincing journey for the character. It kind of reminded me of Anand Menon's "Gauthamante Ratham" in certain portions though the attitude of the protagonist is diametrically opposite in both the cases. None of the events that unfold in Mahesh's life had an impact & some of the situations that he is forced into just didn't feel convincing before it culminated in a rather uninspiring predictable climax. None of the technical aspects deserve special mention as they were ok at best.
The main USP of this flick is Asif Ali who has done utmost justice to his role & his love for cars was evident in the way he emoted while Mamta felt rather artificial in certain sequences. Her behaviour could be possibly justified with the climax but it still felt like she was too mature for this role. As for the rest of the cast, they did what was expected of them.
Verdict: Apparently, Sethu had written the script based on a news article about Maruti restoring the first car which belonged to Mr. Harpal Singh that had rolled out of their production plant. Well the uniqueness of the subject ended there as he wasn't able to add anything more that would have piqued the attention of the audience.
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment