Maanagaram (2017): Few films make me realize about the importance of young talent in Indian Cinema.Especially in Kollywood,there are lot of such talented youngsters who are waiting for their chance.Karthik Subbaraj,Ashwin,Nalan Kumaraswamy etc..Now Lokesh Kangaraj is the debutante who is another gift to Kollywood.
Plot:
Set in the big city of Chennai, a youngster (Sree) from a small town comes to the city for a job opportunity at an IT firm. After he bags the job, on the same night he is beaten up on the road for mistaken identity and no one seems to come for his help. He gets annoyed about how insensitive are the people of the city.On the other hand, there is this young brash Sundeep Kishan who is good at heart and madly in love with his college mate and HR in charge at the IT firm (Regina Cassandra) and goes to any extent to safeguard her. Then you have this soft-natured migrant driver (Charlie), who comes to Chennai for the treatment of his ailing son and lands up the job as a call taxi driver. There's also this notorious mafia gang leader PKB (Madhusudhan), a corrupt policeman who is Sundeep's uncle, and a group of ruthless thugs with a misfit amongst them (Ramdoss.) He kidnaps the wrong child (who happens to be PKB's son) and ever since is on a damage control exercise. How all the characters get interlinked in the climax forms the rest.
Plus Points:
1)Screenplay and Direction: We have seen lot of hyper linked films like Yuva,Manamantha,Vedam and lot of Hollywood films. With a solid story, deft handling and a seamless screenplay (despite a complex script), extracting the best of performances from the entire cast, picture perfect frames (Selvakumar), engrossing music (Javed Riaz) and crisp editing (Philomin Raj), Lokesh has weaved a captivating thriller which is not to be missed. Lokesh scores the most is in how superbly he interlinks all these different stories and characters. The interlinking does not come across as mere coincidences or conveniences for the plot to progress, but as an observation of the interconnectedness that marks life in the city.
2)BGM: BGM is rocking and raised the intensity in scenes to the top.
3)Dialogues: In one scene in film,Hero asks a person about the most commonly used vulgar work "La..Ko..Ka".The way he criticizes the nature of folks in city using the word for everything is one of my most fav scenes in the movie.There are lot of such amazing dialogues in this film.
4)Performances: Everyone in the film has given their career best performances Especially Sree and Charlie stole the entire movie with their brilliant performances.Sundeep Kishan is amazing as rough guy in love with a girl.
Minus Points:
1)Lengthy Climax: Even though the screenplay is engaging at its best lengthy and feels dragged.
So,Maanagaram is an engaging realistic crime dram with terrific direction,amazing performances and dialogues.
My rating 7.5/10
