Meyaadha Maan: A winning musical

“All the world's a stage and all men and women merely players.” Meyaadha Maan starts with this Shakespeare quote. The director repeats this line at three different points in the film as the story changes track each time. Everytime you feel like the film is slowing down and veering towards something predictable, this quote and the quirky twists that follow put a smile on your face. One of the highlights is the interval block which involves one long tracking shot in a hospital that changes the perspective of not just the lead character, but also ours when we realise that it is not a romantic story, but a detailed character sketch of Idhayam Murali.

Cast:Vaibhav, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Vivek Prasanna, Induja
Director: Rathna Kumar

Meyaadha Maan calls itself a musical, and fair enough, considering that its music is what elevates it from being your regular romance. Even something as small as the ringtone of the lead character, Idhayam Murali (Vaibhav in quite possibly his breakout role)--Sangeetha Megam--adds flavour. Every single time the phone rings, you hear only the intro music of that song. This little detail is important because our character, Idhayam Murali, is the lead singer of a Royapuram band and can never sing more than two lines as he can’t remember them. There is a hilarious sequence when someone asks Murali to sing a rock song and the BGM breaks into If you smell, the entrance theme of WWE superstar Rock. Pradeep Kumar and Santosh Narayanan get joint credits for composing duties, and their songs, and how they are used in the film, is a strong plus in this musical.

Musicals, of course, aren’t just about songs. There needs to be a bit of story, too. Meyaadha Maan, at its heart, is the simple story of Idhayam Murali’s one-sided love for Madhumitha (Priya Bhavani Shankar), and how he constantly expresses the urge to die as he’s unable to profess his love to her. His friend Vinoth (a fantastic Vivek Prasanna) doesn't really make a big deal about this, and in one scene, even says, “Ivan suicide attempt la kooda arrear vechavan.” This is the same Vinoth who after finding out that Murali is serious about one of his suicide attempts, writes out an elaborate script and makes people enact it in order to save his friend. Shakespeare, remember?