A delay in the release of this movie in Bangalore caused the delay in my review as well, thanks to the never-ending Cauvery issue between the two neighboring states. In the last few weeks the movie had garnered its equal share of good and bad reviews and was weighed much on the negative side by the critics for its logical flaws and screenplay. This prepared me to watch the movie with a mindset of below average expectation and just happened to squeeze myself for the only show that was there in the nearby multiplex.
The story of Maattraan revolves around the life of conjoined twins Akilan and Vimalan (Suriya) and their father, Ramachandran (Sachin Khedekar) who is an eccentric genetic scientist with his never ending genetic manipulation experiment in the form of an energy drink that is a great success among children; but the truth is that it would make things messy as the time passes by. When one of the siblings comes to know of the truth behind his father's "success" formula, he gets eliminated and obviously the other one takes revenge and brings the enemy to justice even if it is his own father. On the way to the finishing line, the protagonist found time to romance (both in India and in Russia), to crack the international drug mafia with his muscle and to do so many other things that would pop out of our mind once we leave the theater.
Director K.V.Anand had the plot going for him as always and had the right cast in place. Had he been a bit more prudent with the screenplay especially in the second half and some better music from Harris Jayaraj, the movie would have been a brilliant action entertainer.
Suriya, for one had done a dual role before but this one would have definitely taken a toll on him as he had no choice but to have a combination scene with his counterpart time and again. To act and react at the same time with a juxtaposing imaginary character must have been really challenging, especially if both the characters were as different as chalk and cheese. The comedy department was also headed by Suriya as there was a wide scope to explore in the first half. His expressions and timing were top class but I felt somewhere there were resemblances from his previous movies and the scenes had some formulaic conclusions which in turn stood out like a sore thumb.
Kajal Agarwal - first things first. For me she was gorgeous and stunning, no second thoughts about it! She donned the role of a Russian translator and that literally gave room to an interesting context - a Punjabi girl who can translate Russian to Tamil. So all she had to do was to open and close her mouth in whatever way she liked and she wouldn't have worried about her lip sync going awry at least this time around, not that she had given it a thought in her previous outings in Tamil.
Sachin Khedekar as an eccentric genetic scientist was a brilliant selection. He did justice to the scientist's role and also camouflaged himself as a gentle father. His cool headed act in the initial portions and an aggressive approach towards the latter half was convincing.
The supporting cast had nothing else to do but were chosen to fill the vacuum in the script.
Music by Harris Jayaraj was a huge let down as the songs have been rehashed from earlier Suriya movies. On screen, the dance movements were also resembling his earlier works like Aadhavan and Ayan.
Editing by Anthony looked half baked and it was more pronounced in the second half. I was also told that the length of the movie had been further reduced after the first week of its release as the theater owners sounded some concerns. This was clearly felt when so many scenes were abruptly ended in the second half and we could see so many loose ends.
Cinematography by S.Sounderarajan had K.V. Anand's stamp with his signature wide angle shots that added grandeur during unnecessary scenes. The foreign locales in the song sequences were eye candy but otherwise it was nothing worthy to be mentioned given the magnitude of the budget of the movie and the expectations surrounding it.
Overall I feel that there were some inherent flaws in the screen play like spilling the beans early on the character of Suriya's father spoilt the whole show and deterred the fizz that was about to be created in its due course. Also there was some basic flaw like a chemistry teacher finding out the dangers in the formula in the food product which goes undetected by food inspectors who employ hi-fi gadgets in order to detect the same.
Verdict: One-time-watch for its hype and first half!
Rating: 2.5/5
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