Madhubaanakadai review

Movie: Madhubaanakadai
Star Cast: Rafeeq, Ishwarya

Director: Kamalakannan
Music: Vedshankar Sugavanam
Producer: Montage Media Productions

The film begins with the title card ‘If you ever did manage to spot a story in this film, then it would purely be your imagination.’ Fake liquor, the issues faced by the TASMAC today, the issues faced by the drunkards at the bar, the love between the bar owner’s daughter and his employee, the fight between the bar employees and their subsequent friendship, Ramu, who sings songs for free liquor, ‘Petition’ Mani, who discusses everything under the sun in an inebriated state, the beggar who clears the plastic waste strewn around, a youngster who uses the same trick to get some free drinks, the happy-go-lucky child labour, politician, sewage cleaners, two youngsters who dress-up as Gods to collect money for their drinks – these are all the people who frequent the Bar. The director has taken the effort to make this film so that audiences can a get a peek into the lives of such persons.

Since it has been told much earlier that there is no story in the film, we needn’t get too much into it. Though there are no punch dialogues or gravity defying stunts; the love, sentiment and fights are some of the commercial elements sprinkled here and there. Some dialogues like ‘until we waver the government would be steady and if we turn steady the government would waver’ may seem to be ordinary dialogues by the drunkards but they make us sit back and think. The dialogues by the beggar collecting the plastic waste and the sewage workers will all certainly have a strong impact in the audiences. When the bar owner’s daughter and the worker elope, it makes us sit up for the real story… but then we are greeted with ‘The End!’

What works: The selection of actors, their acting, direction.

What doesn’t Works: The cinematography is not up-to-the mark in certain places, the story moves around in the same place.

Verdict: Since it a very different approach, particularly with no story, and is about the TASMAC, it is likeable.