Maamannan review: Fahadh Faasil, Vadivelu’s stellar acting make it a relevant political drama

Fahadh Faasil and Vadivelu-starrer Maamannan is a politically progressive and emotionally haunting film with impressive visual metaphors. However, one of the major shortcomings of the film is that the screenplay proceedings, especially in the second half, remind us of some of the mainstream commercial films like Sarkar.

Maamannan is definitely not the best work of Mari Selvaraj who has delivered classics like Pariyerum Perumal and Karnan, but is still a topical film that has its moments, mainly because of the director’s powerful visual storytelling, out-of-the-park performances from Fahadh (menacing) and Vadivelu (soul-stirring).

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Political undertones

Maamannan, played by Vadivelu, is a hard-working functionary of one of the leading political parties in Tamil Nadu. When his son Adiveeran (played by Udhayanidhi Stalin) and a group of friends are attacked by a gang of old men from a privileged community for bathing in a well that belongs to the temple, Maamannan is unable to do anything because his voice is suppressed by his own party’s leader. Since the horrific incident, Adiveeran stops talking to his father, unable to accept that his friends were killed due to the useless caste pride of a few old men.

Adiveeran leaves his house and trains under a martial arts guru. Maamannan, who is now an MLA, is still controlled by the sinister Rathnavelu (Fahadh Faasil), the district secretary of his party, who also hails from a privileged community. When Rathnavelu and Adiveeran lock horns, it leads to a revolution in their constituency. Also, only through his son, Maamannan realises that his own party leaders never saw him as an equal.

The rest of the storyline is simple — What happens when an oppressed who was not allowed to sit in front of the privileged community becomes the speaker of the most powerful Legislative Assembly? (reminiscent of the real life story of former Legislative Speaker P Dhanapal?) The equality and social justice that a Dalit gets due to the reserved constituency and the highly commanding position talk volumes about the reason behind reservations.

Selvaraj’s love for metaphors

As said earlier, just like Pariyerum Perumal and Karnan, Mari Selvaraj has also used his metaphorical storytelling here in Maamannan. Throughout the film, Fahadh Faasil’s Rathnavelu is obsessed with winning dog races. For him, his own people are like dogs – he wants them to obey him without questions. On the other hand, Adiveeran loves pigs – in the ‘discriminated’ animal, he sees the voiceless and oppressed sections of the society. Selvaraj uses these animals as metaphors to establish the characters of Rathnavelu and Adiveeran and the political ideologies they represent.

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The film’s most iconic moment of the film is the intermission sequence where Adiveeran repeatedly asks his father (Vadivelu) to sit down in front of Rathnavelu, who repeatedly tells him that such things are not in their custom. Such was the build-up that the moment Maamannan sat down on the chair, the theatre reverberated with a thunderous applause.

Power-packed performances

Fahadh completely owns the character with his intense and ‘deadly’ performance. He speaks to the audience through his eyes and exhibits a wide range of emotions. Interestingly, his performance doesn’t remind us of his old films!

Vadivelu’s performance, a total deviation from the comic characters he plays, is a complete surprise – he pulls off a serious look throughout the film and it wouldn’t be wrong to say, stands tall and powerful and on par with any other mass hero in Tamil cinema.

Maamannan is also easily the best work of Udhayanidhi – he looks earnest and delivers a commendable performance.

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Although Keerthy Suresh doesn’t play a substantial role, the film offers her a more progressive role than other female leads in Tamil cinema.

Rahman’s music creates magic

One of the reasons that make Maamannan tick is AR Rahman’s refreshing music – the fresh background score and impressive line-up of songs which whip up a fresh surge of emotions in the listener and in no way are similar to his earlier works.

Special mention to Theni Eshwar for his arresting visuals. His unique frames have definitely helped Selvaraj to deliver several poetic shots in the film.

While the first half of the film is exemplary, Maamannan struggles a bit in the second half with Selvaraj using the run-off-the-mill clichés associated with political dramas to drive home his point, especially in the election episode. However, the powerful climax and the scenes where Vadivelu and Fahadh speak to their party leader Lal stand out!

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To conclude, Maamannan is a relevant political drama that is elevated by the powerful performances of Fahadh Faasil and Vadivelu!