Srinivasan Vasudevan

Movies are largely seen for entertainment but some movies have the power of sowing the seeds of reflection and transformation . Meiazhagan is one such rare movie . It is more bolder attempt by the director than his previous 96 . In 96 the emotion is teenage love between boy and girl but in this movie the director reflects on universal love , akin to anbe sivam . However what makes one respect this movie is that it makes you reflect rather than talk overtly about it. The writing and the staging makes the viewer be next to the onscreen characters . Kudos to the director and producers for this bold social experiment

The issue with this biopic is it just tries to ride on the high of the main character without spending sufficient time to portray the inner turmoils and conflicts that it initially promised us to convey . The daughter - mother relationships ups and downs are forced upon due to lacks of good screenplay writing. To give few examples - the scene where the daughter is made to realise the challenges of being a mother and professional in the open house scene. The writing is so ordinary that this challenge is just spoken by some characters - the legal battle scene(s) are so mawkish, especially the black book scene and emotions ensuing - the last scene of sakunthala speech could have saved the movie , but was again let down by poor writing . Unfortunately only a paid actor , as a daughter , can whistle . The audience are left wondering whether they would be better off watching a documentary rather than a movie that promised a good drama. - the back and forth scenes are over done . At times we get confused what phase in their ever twisting relationship we should relate the scenes to. The protagonist character was real life inspiration but the reel life made it a cliche

Lost opportunity of a good theme . As many reviewers pointed out the screenplay has many holes and the editing adds to the mess. One glaring issue with script - why didn’t Angel turned in can prove being a victim and narrate the incidents? Medical examination was also possible. Final courtroom scene where the lawyer narrates the incident and judge agrees and writes judgement makes us feel numb . Note the judge is bribed but still a good fella The accused is so powerful he can bribe judges and make people commit suicide. Still his tea estate watchmen gets sold for two 500 rupee notes. Wonder what urgent money issue he had