Madras Matinee

While it is technically strong, the film has flaws when it comes to its screenplay. To avoid going into dramatic zones and leaving the audience with a heavy heart, Madras Matinee undercuts its conflicts, which ends up lowering the stakes for its characters. In a tense scene of the film, we see the full emotions of Dinesh being displayed after his voice has been dismissed repeatedly. But when a solution to the conflict is being played out, instead of maintaining Dinesh’s intensity, the scene fizzles out and turns Dinesh’s plight into humour. In another scene, Deepika, as a child, seeks her father’s comfort after she is bullied. Her father, in jest, replies that he will use violence on those kids. The dialogue plays out in a rather insensitive manner.

At the end of the film, though, one wonders what the eventual takeaway was from the lives of Kannan and his family. Yes, we do see the transformation of not just Kannan but also Ramayya move away from fantasy to reality and try to showcase real-world heroism and strength to brave adversity. Like the title - Madras Matinee - was it supposed to be a lazy afternoon timepass, looking at the life of a lower middle-class family in Madras? Or was it supposed to be about humanity triumphing over everything? Madras Matinee is imperfect in its execution, and while one empathises with Kannan and his family, one doesn’t find a real-life hero to cheer on.

Though some of the narrative feels overstretched and unrealistic, the film has a nice ring to it and some episodes are sure to connect with the viewers. There is a feeling of something missing at the end, but the team has definitely put up a film that will connect with the viewer in some way or the other. Kaali Venkat and Roshni stand out as the best performers from the film, with beautiful performance that elude realism at every stage of the film. There’s so much to like in how they carry out their characteristics in the film, and they are ably supported by Shelly. The film has superb cinematography by Anand GK and the music by KC Balasarangan is also good, keeping in mind the constraints that the makers would have had.