Maaveeran

What is a trait of a hero in Bollywood or a telegu movie? He should be macho,able to beat at least 10 to 12 goons. Here it's totally opposite, he is coward as hell, one scene shows he finally thinks enough and goes with a pencil to beat them. Immediately realizes the wrong in that attempt and returns to the coward self.he keeps on saying life is about adjustments, so adjusting that he keeps on losing his personal space , dignity but hats off to the director the viewers will buy in that concept because he makes the viewer familiar about the heroes trait ( the very first scene shows instead of fighting in the que hero prefers to go to the train to fetch water , which in later part of the story used as a callback)

A lovely entertainer with comedic punches where a coward cartoonist is forced to become a warrior as the cartoons world and real world collides. It's a unique concept, presented beautifully where all the characters do their work efficiently ( although except the main hero everyone is a prop without a character arch).

After some long time tamil cinema with some unique concept. The story was well written that from the beginning to end it will keep you engaged throughout the movie. I didn't expect that this movie would this much good.

The background voice dialogues are well disciplined tamil world that are pure. Just the way the comic story way. Shiva Karthikeyan did a good movie after some two lazy movies. He showed his true nature acting. Also Yogi Babu s comics timming was good as he is well in that. One of the best things is this movie had very good cinematography. It has range of wide shot from everywhere. Just like you are also part of the movie.

I have never seen such unique usage of voiceovers/narrations before; In mainstream entertainers, they are primarily used in flashback scenes or to build anticipation around the central character, but the way 'Maaveeran' used this specific trope is quite intriguing, to say the least.

Not to mention, the action or the choreography, to be precise, seemed slightly refreshing as well. The way in which the camera moves and captures every kick and punch; it feels swell and looks damn cool. Some credit must also go to Sivakarthikeyan, who played his part with such unabashed conviction. Nobody else would have done a better job; he looked like an ideal fit for this role.

My only major complaint is its 156 minutes duration; it sometimes felt unnecessarily long. Other than that, it's a respectable commercial venture, a familiar dish, albeit served with a distinctive recipe and a much different flavour.

Rating Maaveeran based on its first half alone, it's easily a 9/10 or 10/10. The characterisations, the comedy, the writing, the acting, everything's on point. However, it suffers from Tamil cinema's new curse of the second half (many people said Jailer had this issue as well, I didn't notice it, but it just shows it's a problem that needs dealing with).

The 2nd half isn't *bad* per se, but it's very contrived, some of the stuff doesn't really make sense, and it surrenders itself to the masala genre. Now, I have no problem with masala movies (I in fact love them, and making a good one requires some skill), but Maaveeran was never meant to be massy. It was always meant to be an unconventional, offbeat entertainer.

One issue I had with the entire movie though was the portrayal of the villain. Considering the director did the masterful 'Mandela', you'd expect some more political nuance, but instead the villain is just big bad minister who is bad because he is meant to be bad. However, the way they wrote his advisor (acted by Sunil) was really nice.

7/10. One time watch.

The movie starts with a casual hero who never want to get into any sort of trouble in his life. And he even says - "We have to adjust and live". And, suddenly things change with a auditory hallucination. The good thing is the audience would have "believed" everything post that given it is fantasy. But the writers have carefully made it believable and everything happening in a series of "Final Destination" kind of screenplay with outstanding comedy from Yogi Babu.

Sivakarthikeyan is unbelievable in this role juggling between a possessed man who never want to be the chosen one. The small drawback is the climax plot making the villain look silly and foolish!!