Producer– Jagadeesh Chandran
Director– Shaji Kailas
Cast– Jayaram, Meera Nandan, Meghna Raj, Tiny Tom, Kailash etc
Music– Satheesh Sujith
Review By : Unni R Nair (Kerala9.com )
Shaji Kailas seems to have lost his touch. His last film, ‘Simhasanam’, was a let down. Now his latest, ‘Madirashi’, seems to re-iterate this fact. The film is a mess and disappoints you beyond all limits.
Scripted by Rajesh Jayaraman, ‘Madirashi’ tells the story of Chandran Pillai (Jayaram), a do-gooder and a widower from a village in Kerala. Bhama (Meera Nandan), who is a teacher, wants to get married to Chandran Pillai and be a mother to his son, whom she likes a lot. In the meantime, Chandran Pillai travels to Madirashi, which we are told, is a part of Coimbatore, to buy for his son a brand new cycle. There he is drawn into a very vicious circle when he goes probing the disappearance of Johny (Kalabhavan Mani), a police constable who too had come to Madirashi to buy a bicycle for his son.
Chandran Pillai has by his side Jayapalan (Tiny Tom), his friend and constant aide and Maya (Meghna Raj), a girl whom they come across on many occasions and who swindles him of his money in many ways. Helped by Jayapalan and Maya, Chandran Pillai sets out to combat some evil forces that suddenly come up to fight him and crush him to defeat. What all happens then forms the rest of the plot.
The first one hour of the film leaves you totally confused. It begins with a young chap (Kailash) getting kidnapped and then there’s all those seemingly nonsensical goings on in the life of Chandran Pillai and you end up getting confused. By the time it all goes on action mode, you are exhausted and the action part of the film too is handled in the worst of manners.
So, by the time ‘Madirashi’ comes to an end, you feel at the same time entirely spent up as well as relieved. You’re spent up having gone through all that in the name of cinema and you are relieved as it has all finally come to an end. Shaji Kailas’ ‘Madirashi’ is so unlike Shaji Kailas films of the past and is poor show, in all respects.
Performance
Jayaram struggles with a character that’s so poorly written and handled; he seems to be confused about what to do and also as to what kind of a film he is acting in. Just as we at the receiving end are confused whether to take it for an action film or a comedy entertainer, the lead players too seem to be confused, not knowing what they are doing or what kind of film they are acting in. None of the others in the cast have anything good to do and it’s all poor show, on the performance side.
Technical aspects
Nothing much to jot about the technical aspects of the film.
Music
The songs are unimpressive; the background score is just so so…
Script
Rajesh Jayaraman, who has made a mess of the script, had earlier scripted Shaji Kailas’ ‘Sound of Boot’ and ‘Time’. Those films had flaws, but compared to ‘Madirashi’ seem much better. The young writer could have handled ‘Madirashi’ either as an action flick or as comic entertainer. As of now, it’s neither here nor there nor anywhere. Same is our plight. Having spent our money and time on the film, we end up being as confused as never before.
Direction
Shaji Kailas should have shown better discretion while choosing the script. He has made ‘Madirashi’ in a way that it leaves us confused, wondering if it really is a film from the guy who made all those hit action flicks. Poor show, Shaji Kailas. Better luck next time!
Verdict- A mess of a film!!
Rating: 1.5/5