Review Overview
Performances
Story & Narration
Technical Aspects & Music
Mesmerizing, utterly triumphant romantic experience.
Wonderfully woven emotional tale that gives enough and more space to the beauty and the dynamics of a cross-state relationship. With great performances from the lead pair (Madhampatty Rangaraj and Shweta Tripathi) along with the amazing music, it is a very charming film that will leave you smiling.
Cast: Madhampatty Rangaraj, Shweta Tripathi, RJ Vigneshkanth, Vela Ramamoorthy, Maarimuthu, Pooja, Sunny Charlas & others
Camera: SelvaKumar SK
Music: Sean Roldan
Editing: Philomin Raj
Screenplay: Anand Shankar, Shan Karuppusamy
Art Director: Sathish Kumar
Story & Dialogues: Raju Murugan
Directed by: Saravana Rajendran
Produced by: KE Gnanavel Raja’s Studio Green
Distribution: Sakthivelan’s Sakthi Film Factory
Release Date: 19-04-2019
With the growth of cinema for the new generation, the space for romance has literally died out. The genre which was a crowd-favorite during the times of Balachander has slowly gone drought with writers getting repetitive with their ideas, and the whole meaning of ‘love’ too taking new dimensions. However, with the entry of 96 last year, the romance genre got some respite and indeed won itself a big bag of attention amidst the audiences. Pleasantly adding more merry to the wave is this week’s release Mehandi Circus, a wonderfully woven emotional tale that gives enough and more space to the beauty and the dynamics of a cross-state relationship. With great performances from the lead pair (Madhampatty Rangaraj and Shweta Tripathi) along with the amazing music, it is a very charming film that will leave you smiling.
The whole premise of having a love story between a man who owns a cassette shop and a girl from the circus is pretty novel and organically brings in nostalgia. Writer Rajumurugan brings in this interesting milieu and spans his films over the course of different timelines and phases, coming together as one by the end. The film is as pleasing to the eyes as it is painful, and it is this balance that makes it a lovely watch on the whole. With the circus backdrop being stitched in, it provides area for lots of characters from various backgrounds to walk in, and that is more than enough for Rajumurugan to unleash his brand of social commentary which comes with the occasional laughs too. Credit to him for holding the weight of the film on the thought-provoking dialogues, which strike a chord wherever needed. On the writing front, is this a remarkable effort that does not force too much into the narrative.
Lead hero Madhampatty Rangaraj makes a confident debut here. In a role that requires him to watch his step, it’s a measured and well-controlled performance that gives the film what it needs. On the other hand, Shweta Tripathi in the titular role is brilliant with her lively expressions that blow you away. Making her dub on her own adds the much-needed believability factor to her role, something that makes even the misspelt lines forgivable. The rest of the cast, even though packed with relatively new faces, help us relate to the proceedings easily.
It would not be wrong to say that Sean Roldan’s work for Mehandi Circus is right there along with the best musical outings we’ve seen in recent times. His earnest and passionate effort stands tall throughout, as his gentle and beautiful tunes resonate wonderfully with the film. Not only the songs, Sean has also put in a solid amount of work for the background score, which keeps getting better from scene to scene. The Ilaiyaraaja tributes which are nicely knit into the film are additional assets to what is a musically rich experience. Technically too, the film is neat with Selvakumar’s cinematography scaling the right locations and backdrop needed for the story.
Mehandi Circus may not be everybody’s cup of tea, with the pacing swaying towards the slower side, but the film does deserve your eyes for the amount of little presents that it brings into the actual big picture. Especially the Ilaiyaraaja fans, this one’s for you.