By Vivek Ramz

Murattu Kaalai, produced by chief minister Karunanidhi's grandson Gunanidhi has been delayed for a long time due to distributor Ayngaran’s financial problems. It finally released this weekend without any publicity hype. This film is a remake of Rajinikanth’s yesteryear hit of the same name. So, the script had potential but the film ended as a damp squib.

What's it about?

Kaalaiyan, (Sundar.C) is a wealthy and prominent person from a village who lives happily with his four brothers. Unfortunately he gets into the way of Varadharajan (Suman), big shot of a neighbouring village. Suman’s sister (Sindhu Tolani) falls in love with Kaalaiyan. Though Varadharajan initially hesitates, he arranges for their marriage because he was eyeing Kaalaiyan’s wealth. But, Kaalaiyan refuses to marry after getting to know about Varadharajan and his sister’s wrong intentions. Meanwhile, Bhuvana (Sneha), who was supposed to marry Varadharajan, escapes from his clutch and comes to Kaalaiyan for help and starts living with him. Eventually, they fall in love with each other. This irks Varadharajan to no extent and he starts plotting to take revenge. The rest of the story unfolds with typical twists and turns. 

Rajini Sir’s original Murattu Kaalai had all the ingredients of a typical commercial film like good action, sentimental dialogues, comedy and of course good music. So, it worked big time during the 1980s. But time has changed and Tamil cinema has come of age today. Director Selva Bharathy was trying to play safe and retained the story without improving upon anything and therefore failed to execute it properly. 

His script lacked the soul of the original and never gets to engage the audience. The second half of the script showed promise with much needed twists, but he spoiled it by revealing more details before itself. Sundar C is his usual self, mouthing dialogues with full sound effects and knocks off ten henchmen with a single punch. Sneha dances well for few songs and then disappears. Sindhu Tolani does nothing mentionable too. Suman’s portrayal of fiery Varadharajan is convincing. But It’s Vivek, who carries the film on his shoulders and makes it work in whatever way possible. His effeminate character of ‘Saroja’ aka ‘Saami’ forms the crux of the story and his one-liners work to certain extent. Rest of the cast just manages to pass the litmus test.

Srikanth Deva’s background music is too loud and songs are very average. Even STR with the energetic voice could not make the ‘Sundara Purusha’ song work. Ilaiyaraja’s iconic song ‘Podhuvaaga En Manasu Thangam’ doesn’t evoke the same response as that of the original. Editing by Praveen-Srikanth duo is a big let-down as the sub-plots are not properly inserted into the main one. The slow pacing of the film in the middle makes you yawn at times.

What to do?

This film’s is an example of how not to remake an old blockbuster. So, those who want to learn about it can give it a shot. Others stay away.

In.com rating – 2/5