Dhanush’s Maaran is the latest film on the block to fit into the basic requirements of a thriller, and it picks up its plot from events that take place in the background of a journalist.
The film has Madhimaaran taking charge at a new bulletin, only to fall into a tricky case where there is more to his suspects than what meets the eye. The film takes simple things that take place in a journalist’s life and twists many angles onto it. The funny thing here is in how Maaran does not manage to engage the viewer with its narrative and has a short film/web series feel to it as opposed to a proper feature film. None of the film’s proceedings or the visual style has Karthick Naren’s tag attached to it, and the film simply hops forward with mildly interesting proceedings. The first half is the better of the two, while the second half keeps coming at you with twists that do not actually make a major impact.
Dhanush is fine in this role, but somehow, Maaran feels like a film that should have been done by a smaller actor. Malavika Mohanan gets a good part to play in the first half, while Smruthi Venkat handles the sister sentiments quite well. Samuthirakani has an okayish role to play, with the rest of the cast including KK and Mahendran not having much to do.
GV Prakash’s songs are just about fine but his background score does pump up the ante at a few moments like the pen fight. The film’s technicalities are very basic are way different from what Karthick Naren exhibited in Dhruvangal Pathinaaru and Mafia.
On the whole, Maaran is a middling investigative drama that has good scope but rarely realizes it. It is a safe escape route to catch the film on OTT. Maaran Movie Review by Only Kollywood