Maareesan review: Fahadh-Vadivelu thriller touches upon a heinous crime

Director Sudheesh Shankar’s Maareesan is a template thriller that relies more on twists and turns than its core plot. Written by V. Krishna Moorthy, the film talks about a heinous crime that has been haunting us. But the script only touches up on the crime on the surface level and only spends more time unfolding the mystery. Despite the tried and tested execution style, Maareesan works to an extent because of the great casting, an unexpected intermission twist, and the back story that has been kept a secret until the last act.

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Dhayalan (Fahadh Faasil) is a quirky thief who has an uncanny style of saying that a few houses would talk to him, and he would rob only such places. As soon as Dhayalan gets released from prison, he gets into one such house to meet Velayutham Pillai (Vadivelu), an Alzheimer's patient. Velayutham was seen chained in the house by his son. He requests Dhayalan to take him out of the house, and in exchange, the latter will be handsomely paid.

Agreeing to the old man’s request, Dhayalan takes up the offer. Dhayalan’s greed amplifies as soon as he sees that Velayutham has Rs 25 lakh in his account. Now, Dhayalan offers Velayutham that he can drop him at his friend’s place in Tiruvannamalai. In the journey, both Dhayalan and Velayutham develop a bond although there were some differences in the beginning. However, neither Dhayalan nor Velayutham don’t knows the secrets they closely safeguard. What happens when they find out each other’s secrets forms the crux of the story.

Intermission twist

The intermission twist is indeed the biggest surprise in Maareesan. Since the trailer was smartly cut and the first half’s screenplay doesn’t have a single clue to the twist, we are completely blown away by the intermission, although the film is leisurely paced. The film engages us with the one-liners of Fahadh as Vadivelu maintains the serious tone throughout. Only in the second half, Vadivelu’s character gives you some laughs, but one could feel the serious tone throughout in the seasoned comedian’s characterisation and performance. Though it takes some time to settle with the contrasting performance of Vadivelu, who is known for his slapstick comedy for decades, he must be lauded for stepping out of his comfort zone.

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Vadivelu also gets a character that used to be a dream role for many heroes in the 90s, especially for the stars who wanted to work with Shankar and his vigilante films. Fahadh is, as usual, brilliant with his performance. He can be witty, heroic, and villainous in one scene. His philosophical take on robbery and the comparison with Kamal Haasan brings the roof down. Other than these two, Vivek Prasanna gets an image makeover in the last act, and Sithara also gets a sympathetic role. The other actors like Livingston, Renuka, PL Thenappan, Saravana Subbaiah, only get limited scope as the film depends on Fahadh and Vadivelu’s journey.

Impressive music

Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score is one of the highlights. He has done an impressive job in a film where the genre and emotions keep changing. Ilaiyaraaja’s vintage track has also been used in an important scene in the film and it’s too good to see Vadivelu-Fahadh shaking their legs. Cinematographer Kalaiselvan Sivaji has done a neat job by candidly capturing the road trip, while the editing pattern could’ve been more crisper.

While the twists and turns are the strengths of Maareesan, the old-school execution style and dialogues in the climax are a letdown. The flamboyance we see in the new age thrillers is missing here.

Overall, Maareesan is an adequate thriller with some solid twists and turns by touching upon a heinous crime that is a big challenge in today’s world!