The title name takes us thoughts across a breezy ride through ECR and some 10th century sculptures with a bunch of foreigners. The movie does offer some of these at times, then oozes into some mediocre acting and then finishes with a dramatic twist. Directed by Don Sandy, the film features very few known faces with Karunakaran at its prime. Let’s ride out to the coast to find out more
The movie:
Experimentation is something which most of the upcoming directors love to toy with, falling into the same basket is Mahabalipuram which has an unconvincing first half with poorly crafted screenplay, dialogues, editing and almost every other aspect. Then suddenly the last 35 minutes of the film makes you forget the first half with a hard hitting message that involves sex scandals in a daunting truth.
The movie is about a group of friends Sammy (Karthik), Sathish (Vetri), Kuppan (Ramesh Thilak), Karunakaranare close friends ofPanja (Vinayak). The scene opens with Panja who faces a death sentence and then flashes back to the gang of 5 who spend their life around Mahabalipuram doing odd jobs. With the newly wed Sathish and Sangeetha(Angana) settling down, life just chugs on for the gang and one fine day the guys just sit around boozing and come across a sex scandal video which features Angana with a stranger in an awkward situation causing the death of the newly married.What happens to the rest of the gang, the conspiracy and the death is to follow through the second half.
What’s good?
The hard hitting message comes to our mind as the first thing. The inevitable thing is about the growing sex scandals, falling into the wrong hands and what people are capable of. Don Sandy’s unusual choice of script based on true life incidents sends a spine chilling message through the end, considering the genre of the movie its best to watch and find out rather than knowing the storyline through word of mouth. Tests your patience through the first half, however finishes off as a seething thriller to the end.
Vinayak is the sole torch bearer of the movie giving some relieving moments when it comes to acting, the scene when he emotes at the burial ground is one for example. However his body language when it comes to dialogue delivery takes a toss through the end. K’s BGM music is just about with none of the songs too good to talk about.
What, why and how:
With a good script in hand, the big question to the director would be why get confused on so many elements. Too many dialogues are just dramatic and are placed for the sake of it especially in the first half. The editing is as bad as the screenplay in the first half, doesn’t stick well. Performance wise apart from Vinayak, none of the actors have delivered what was intended or maybe sticks to what the story demands.
The key is all about delivering the intention and Don has done a good job in the last few minutes of the movie, a little more spice and life to the first half would have driven home a blockbuster.
Verdict : Makes you wait for its thrills.
2.25/5
