Meiyazhagan review: This Karthi, Arvind Swami movie is high on emotions and values
Synopsis: A man travels to his hometown for his cousin's wedding 22 years after he loses his ancestral property. There he is looked after by a man, who recalls their childhood memories. But who is he? How are they connected?
Meiyazhagan poster
Cast: Karthi, Arvind Swami, Raj Kiran, Sri Divya, Devadarshini, Ilavarasu, Swathi Konde, Jayaprakash and Karunakaran
Director: C Premkumar
Music director: Govind Vasantha
Rating: 3/5
Premkumar's second directorial is Meiyazhagan, which has Karthi playing the titular role. He is accompanied by Arvind Swami. The filmmaker's fascination with 96 continues as the film begins in the year 1996 in Thanjavur with a young Arulmozhi Varman (Arvind Swami) and his family is forced to leave the town after selling their ancestral property. This also leads to him cutting his ties with all his relatives, barring his uncle Sudalaimuthu (Raj Kiran).
Cut to 2018, he has to travel to his hometown for his dearest cousin Bhuvana's (Swathi Konde) wedding. There, Arul meets a person, who calls him aththan (maternal cousin) and looks after him very well. They both spend time together but Arul doesn't exactly know who he is. He tried to figure it out but couldn't. The characters are introduced in a typical Premkumar style as each of them become significant with the emotions they carry. Be it Karunakaran as bus conductor Jaggu or Bhuvana unboxing Arul's gift and asking him to help her wear the jewellery, the filmmaker ensures that our eyes well up along with those characters. There are a few scenes that tickle our funny bones and Karthi carries them really well. These make for Meiyazhagan's first half.
The second half of the 177-minute Meiyazhagan begins slowly and it is more of an overnight conversation between two people. We believe that there is something to offer. But the story deviates to several topics such as the Sterlite Issue, Jallikattu, Eezham killings and some chola history. This 20-minute conversation between Karthi and Arvind Swami in the film is something the makers could do away with as it could reduce the runtime and still would keep the core of the film intact.
Karthi's innocence and Arvind Swami's many emotions make us sit through this emotional roller coaster. Govind Vasantha has done his part really well with playing along with the story and the emotions of characters we meet. Devadarshini, Jayaprakash, Raj Kiran and Ilavarasu are all impressive despite their limited screen time.
The live sync sound takes us closer to the landscape along with Mahendhiran Jayaraju's visuals. Meiyazhagan is beautiful in its own way and will pull the family audience to theatres.
