Mudhalvan, directed by the renowned S.Shankar and with a background score composed by A.R. Rahman, would appear to be an awesome movie on paper. After watching it, I can say that Shankar had good intentions to crudely showcase the level of corruption + prejudice present within South Indian cities and communities at the time. However, the movie did not meet my expectations. So, what was good and what derailed this film?
Pros:
Performances: Arjun performs aptly, displaying the perfect "no- nonsense" attitude when dealing with the issues present at hand and also subtly handling his relationship with Thenmozhi. Raghuvaran is decent as the villain in the movie, delivering his lines with a pinch of harshness and irritation.
Songs/BGM: Songs are hella nice. Kudos to A.R. Rahman for crafting such a nice background score.
Cons:
Performances: Koirala is wasted. The romance angle is completely unnecessary, as she doesn't really play a super substantial role in the film after her introduction (which is very good btw). Vadivelu is annoying as hell. I don't understand what Shankar was thinking when crafting this character. Everyone else was strictly average.
Screenplay/Story: Solid message, but haphazard screenplay. Too many songs coupled with the "superhero" abilities of Arjun in this film, which takes away some of the realism that Shankar was trying to shoot for. The second half is a drag, as it is basically a useless fight between the corrupt politicians and Arjun. But that's a fairly standard feature in Tamil films, so I can't blame Shankar too much for falling into that trap.
Cinematography/Editing: Action scenes + special effects were generic (to be expected from that time). Some scenes in the beginning went by too fast. As stated earlier, scenes dragged on in the second half. The movie needed to be shot crisper and tighter.
Overall: 5.5/10. Watch it for its message and Arjun's performance.
Pros:
Performances: Arjun performs aptly, displaying the perfect "no- nonsense" attitude when dealing with the issues present at hand and also subtly handling his relationship with Thenmozhi. Raghuvaran is decent as the villain in the movie, delivering his lines with a pinch of harshness and irritation.
Songs/BGM: Songs are hella nice. Kudos to A.R. Rahman for crafting such a nice background score.
Cons:
Performances: Koirala is wasted. The romance angle is completely unnecessary, as she doesn't really play a super substantial role in the film after her introduction (which is very good btw). Vadivelu is annoying as hell. I don't understand what Shankar was thinking when crafting this character. Everyone else was strictly average.
Screenplay/Story: Solid message, but haphazard screenplay. Too many songs coupled with the "superhero" abilities of Arjun in this film, which takes away some of the realism that Shankar was trying to shoot for. The second half is a drag, as it is basically a useless fight between the corrupt politicians and Arjun. But that's a fairly standard feature in Tamil films, so I can't blame Shankar too much for falling into that trap.
Cinematography/Editing: Action scenes + special effects were generic (to be expected from that time). Some scenes in the beginning went by too fast. As stated earlier, scenes dragged on in the second half. The movie needed to be shot crisper and tighter.
Overall: 5.5/10. Watch it for its message and Arjun's performance.