Matinee Review

There has been plenty of movies with  film making as it's backdrop in the recent times. Many of them feature the unending struggles of protagonist to make it big at the Box Office, But Aneesh Upasana'ss `Matinee' stands out for a more realistic treatment and its mature ending.
 
Maqbool Salman appear as Najeeb, born to an orthodox Muslim family of Malabar region. His father Moosa Hajiar (Thalaivaasal Vijay) is a staunch believer who even doesn't like to hear the name of cinema. Though Najeeb had enough education and familial backup, he fails to achieve any appreciable job. His only solace is in the form of cinema and the local girl, Sainaba, who likes him a lot. Najeeb, who is but a cinephile somehow take chances and lands at Chennai, gets rechristened as Abhishek kumar and grabs the lead role in the movie `Ponvasantham'. Playing his female lead is   Savithry (Mydhili), who hails from a poor family of Palakkad coming to  Chennai only to find a job for a living. The pair was treated properly in the sets and the movie shoot ends in no time and both of them returns to their respective places, after getting paid reasonably well. But its only on the matinee show of their first movie that they realize that there lives are going to change unexpectedly forever. 
 
Taking up the case of struggling actors and debutantes is the scriptwriter Anil Narayanan, whose story though told many times before, offers a decent watch. The first half is pretty cliched in some portions, but the sharp script editing, and believable dialogues manages to push the movie off to a normal start. The second half is a stunner with fine sequences that works mostly. The cinematography by Pappinu and the editing also adds to the treatment style followed by the debutante director. Gopi Sundar has come up with some good BG scores while the songs by Ratheesh Vega  and the item dance song by Anand raj Anand, choreographed interestingly are already chart toppers.
 
Maqbool Salman in his debutante lead role appear a bit edgy in the first half but manges with his character in the later half. Mydhili has one of her best roles till date, which she almost get to perfection, most of the times. The rest of the cast including Thalaivasal Vijay and Dinesh are apt in their roles.
 
This `Matinee' when considered as an offering from debutantes, is a decent watch. 
 
Rating-6/10