Maareesan

While the film is refreshing and engaging pre-interval, it leans heavily on predictability and cliches in the way it deals with a heinous crime. Though the characters are morally flawed, the stance the film takes in dealing with criminals sticks out like a sore thumb. While traditionalists might agree with the film’s climax, the makers fail to tap into a message that’s politically right.

The most tragic thing about Maareesan is how you can see a much better film right beneath the surface. It is especially apparent during the moments when Velayudham’s internal struggle spills out through philosophical musings. There is a poignant reflection on how our sense of self is just a string of memories. In another scene, Dhayalan remarks how loss of memory could be a blessing, while Velayudham adds how the disease has forced him to let go of the past and future and made him live in the present. Maareesan could have explored such grand and rich philosophical themes through two unlikely travellers bonding over a road trip. But, no, it settles for a simplistic crime thriller that ends with an angst-ridden “solution” for a sensitive real-world issue.

SPOILER ALERT! The issue with Maareesan lies in the second half. That part of the movie has the responsibility of clarifying who this old man is and why he is doing all these extreme things. Even though the reasons are somewhere giving a logical answer to the inconsistent Alzheimer’s of Pillai, it goes after worn-out ideas of vigilante justice. The writing feels extremely lazy in those portions, and the way the goodness factor gets into the movie is also very cheesy. The first half of the film was so fun that I was hoping there would be some exciting twist in the tale that would elevate this generic revenge tale to something better.

The film excels in maintaining a strong sense of doubt and suspense in the first half, keeping the audience guessing. The second half opens up emotionally with some key reveals and a climax twist that clicks and works in the film’s favour. However, the back story that the film presents is something that is done-to-death and there have been similar beats in recent films – while it is effective enough to push forward the narrative of the film, it is not something extraordinary. The film benefits from the emotional investment that is created by the lead characters, and that is what takes it till the end.

For a movie titled Maareesan — a rakshasa character in the Hindu epic of Ramayana, who served as an ally of Ravana and played a key role in the kidnapping of Sita — it wastes an awful lot of time disguising itself as a fun comedy wherein the fate of a thief and his loot hinges on the mercy of the victim. Considering that the film’s named Maareesan, it’s almost impossible to believe that this storyline forms its core. Regardless, writer V Krishna Moorthy and director Sudheesh Sankar make the movie circle around a single focal point for so long that it becomes tiring soon. What makes it worse is that, when Maareesan shifts to a higher gear, Sudheesh fails to give it the dramatic elevation it requires, at least to jolt awake those viewers who might have dozed off. Instead, that entire portion of revealing a part of Velayudham Pillai’s real identity, in the scenes leading up to the interval, is treated as if it isn’t a big deal, thus wasting a good opportunity to showcase a genre shift well.