'Meiyazhagan' Review: A heart-warming tale of human relationships and emotions, elevated by its performances and a sweeter approach.

 

Meiyazhagan

Overview:

A film equivalent to an old album in our house, dusted yet nostalgic and wholesome. Amidst films with serious genres and wider ambitions, Meiyazhagan is a beautifully simple film that has a beating heart at a softer, yet right spot.

The film manages to make a talky yet mature journey, out of a very simple thread of story. A film of this treatment, is a rare sight.

Performances:

The whole narrative is all about its two lead characters, Arvind Swamy and Karthi with few another characters. Karthi lights the screen with his bubbling innocence and brims with an infectious energy, with a tinge of emotional weight to him. The magic is however, with Arvind Swamy, who is easily the best in this film. He, as Arulmozhi Varman, brings a very humane nature to an already grounded character, His facial expressions and body language conveys the emotional weight he carries. The transformation his character undergoes, is very natural and convincing. The other star cast like Rajkiran, Sridivya. Jayaprakash. Devadarshini aid the narrative very well.

Cinematography and Sounds:

The film goes for a natural lighting that has a very real and lively look to it. The camera movement is static and helps us sit through the conversations, as if we are sort of listeners to it. Instead of going for technical lights, the film uses a lot of lamps which gives a very refreshing feel. The sounds are natural with animal sounds adding a lot to the scene's atmosphere.

Music by Govind Vasantha gels well with the story, and the background scores are used only when its needed. The songs are touching and sticks with you for a long time.

Themes:

The films deals with human emotions and internal conflicts like insecurity, coping with loss, forgiveness and most importantly, about happiness and the significance of small things. While not as a part of the story, the film also deals with sensitive themes of history, riots, the gradual decline of language and staying connected to our roots. 

Treatment of the film:

Director Prem Kumar, just like his previous venture '96', goes for a one night story about two characters and their past. That was romance and this is bromance. The emotions feels real and stirring. For a picture of this genre, the film never feels melodramatic because of its successful attempts of infusing humour at many places. The humour never feels forced nor does it come out as a sore thumb. It infuses life in an already soulful story.

Just like any other feel good film, this story has a very relatable character at its centre, someone who is insecure, recovers from a very personal loss and guilty about love showered on him. The film deals all those emotions in a very mature and optimistic manner. 

The biggest advantage of this film is that, despite its long running time, it never feels stretched or stagnated at any point, thanks to a very emotional engagement the film manages to hook us with. The film also maintains a small mystery around one of its lead characters, that's skilfully used throughout the narrative, both as means of humour as well as emotional.

The first half of the film is very charming and engaging with some great moments, while the second half could have been a tad shorter. Nevertheless, the film doesn't bore you out.

A small gripe about this tale would be that, every detail about the characters are verbose but not conveyed much through visuals, which could have benefitted the film, in a very aesthetic way.

Verdict:

To conclude with, Meiyazhagan, just like how its name sounds, is as precious as a gem, that's equally delightful and entertaining.

'Nellikaiya kadichitu, thanni kudicha maari iruku' says one of its lead characters, sums up the entire film.