For starters, this isn’t a Kamal film; it’s one of his usual gimmicks for a preparatory project before one of his magnum opus gets it’s financial dues. But it has glimpses of the Master and that is indicative of his relentless presence in MA.
I have always been critical of his screenplay and provocatively, he is staunch and unorthodox when he is at the helm of affairs to script and envision the dialogues. ‘Manmadhan Ambu’ has his touch crafted in periodic parts of this flick; and that remains it’s inevitable strength to hold the reins together.
He has the plot dimensionally quadruple; the usual choppy lines with courageous sense of humour is pivotal to the existence of all the characters (though nowhere when compared to his earlier gigantic works like ‘Michael Madana Kamarajan’, ‘Sathileelavathi’ and ‘Magalir Mattum’. But the flair is visible and even more explicit is the way Kamal has restrained himself by not sinking in to his own. He keeps reminding all of us that this is KS Ravikumar’s directorial venture, throughout. Indeed, it is. The entire cruise is on a roller coaster ride of entangled human relationships and spurious characters always oblige in such credulous pipelines. MA throws them as entertaining interventions, to say the least.
My favourite scenes are couple of them; the sequences when he is narrating his past with heart wrenching quotations of life and way of living it (including the derailed condition of his best buddy) has our quintessential Kamal in awesome flow. The reverse flashback of getting his dead wife in to the loop was shot impeccably.
The casting was decently etched. Madhavan was impressive, Urvashi played herself and Sangeetha walks away with the chunk of the cake. As a female counterpart of one of the protagonist in the film, she grabs accolades gleefully. Trisha was submissive and probably over awed in the company of the genius. There is nothing called chemistry between Trisha and Kamal in the film; it was evidently meant to be that way. And, honestly, I liked the way they confront each other when the former tries to approach him to divulge the painful truth behind the occurrence of the calamity in his life.
The music and background score are story-centric and revolve around individuals in a implicit fashion; nothing much to talk about it though. The songs as such are forgettable.
MA will once again throw the mantle over to the writing credentials of Kamal; his screenplay was taut but story telling could be a touch better, especially when it is targeted for audiences who are not so adept in understanding his exploits with the pen. An entertainer with something for everybody. And, a touch of interim class from the debonaire Kamal Haasan.
@Lifeoholic 