Preposterous aping of Mel Gibson’s ‘Apocalypto’ and Fernando Meirelles’ ‘City of God’ in the backdrops of Madurai has turned to be the most illustrious mantra of some filmmakers in Kollywood. Let’s not get on about exemplifications as there have been more than dozens of flicks churned out with this genre.
‘Maathiyosi’ focalizes on 4 young ruffians – Pandian (Harish), Ona (Gopal), Maanga (Alex), Maari (Lokesh) belonging to lower caste community, residing in suburbs of Madurai. The very first shot lets us exasperated as the boys hunt down on a pig for their feast (Apocalypto’s prologue). Later sequences exposes about their conflicts with high class community, cops and their journey to Chennai. Over there, an unexpected encounter with a girl (Shammu) changes their course of life with a very much foreseeable narration in latter half.
When few filmmakers get along for a self-aggrandizing talk that their nativity films will be proclaimed all over the world, they’ll have to make sure that the concept and contents are fresh and credible. It’s all about inviting ridicule as they copycat the action sequences from foreign films and fritter away with producers.
The film hasn’t got a single attribute to appreciate about. Over-dosed linguistic touch of Madurai Tamil, guys roaming without shirts (just like Africans) just for the sake of depicting dark-complexion and enhance the feel-like-Latin American films. The characterizations are so bleak and precisely caricatured. Why do all the women utter with a peculiar slang of arrogance? Sparring Ponvannan, none of the actors live up to the expectations and Ravi Mariah’s peculiar role doesn’t evoke our interests.
Technically, the film doesn’t afford to score a single star for its bleached grading of every shot. Guru Kalyan tries to be an Ilayaraja on all quotients, which is a mere inconsistency.
Finally, ‘Maathiyosi’ doesn’t offer anything special and can be regarded as a below-average film that lacks substantiality on every quotient.
What works: Ponvannan and some witty dialogues
What doesn’t work: Almost everything on technical and narrative aspects.
Production: P.S. Shekar Reddy
Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction: Nandha Periyasamy
Star-casts: Harish, Gopal, Alex, Logesh, Shammu, Ravi Mariah, G.M. Kumar, Ponvannan and others
Music: Guru Kalyan
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