"Society needs stories" - BFI
In an interview, Mari Selvaraj said “It is only pain that drives me”. Like with his previous films, we see his pain in Maamannan too.
What I love the most about Maamannan is the characterization. Every character in the film - be it Keerthy Suresh’s Leela, Udayanidhi’s Athiveeran, or Vadivelu’s Maamannan - has…a character. They have a certain consistency to them, they are fleshed out well and their actions are congruent with their values and beliefs.
Take Keerthy’s Leela character for example. Mari Selvaraj doesn’t only use dialogue-driven scenes to establish her character (like the fact that she runs an educational institute for the underprivileged, she isn’t afraid to give it back when she gets threat calls), he uses subtle touches too (she wears boyish clothes, her phone wallpaper is a closed fist - a communist symbol, she wears a tee shirt that reads “Power to the people”, and she wears sneakers even when she is wearing a saree as if she is always prepared). She is portrayed as strong-willed and fierce, but Mari does not make the mistake of making her one-dimensional. We also see her softer side in the context of her romance with Athiveeran. While she does not have a lot of screen time, she does have a pivotal role in the world of Maamannan. Her strength makes her reliable and Athiveeran takes her help in several instances throughout the film. This would not have made sense if Mari had not sold her to us as this strong-willed character.
Faahad’s Rathnavelu, on the other hand, does not get the same kind of treatment. He is mostly one-dimensional, driven by the need to uphold his father’s values of “gauravam” and his contempt for pigs (i.e the lower caste). Many times, a one-dimensional villain leaves you wanting for more. But that wasn’t the case here. Faahad makes up for this one-dimensionality with his terrific, utterly convincing performance.
Udayanidhi’s Athiveeran is like an active volcano. He can explode into a fit of rage at any time. If the antagonists are driven by depravity, Athiveeran is driven by the need to not be a coward. While the means are different, the ends are the same - they both are hot-headed. They are like two sides of the same coin and Mari hints at this duality through clever transitions in the opening few minutes where it takes you a minute to realize that they’ve cut to a different scene. Mari does not reduce the protagonist to an ideal figure who always does the right thing. Instead, he keeps it real - the protagonist has flaws too. Sometimes, he is so blinded by anger that he ends up shooting himself in the foot. However, you never really feel like calling Athiveeran stupid. You get why he boils with anger. He wishes that pigs developed wings so that they can fly away from the discrimination they face. You understand the childhood trauma that has shaped his thinking - the stone pelting scene, shown in a striking B&W palette and elevated by a riveting score, is heart-wrenching.
Vadivelu not being able to stand up for his son and his friends is maybe even more heart-wrenching. You can see how that event broke his spirit - he was someone who stood up to superiors (albeit in a non-combative way) but since that event, subservience is all he knows. Yet, we see glimpses of rebellion. We see that he has bought a gun and that he is unusually insistent about having all his guests seated. But he needed a trigger to break out of the glass ceiling of subservience.
The breaking of that ceiling takes place in a gripping scene where Athiveeran finally talks to his father after 15 years and his father finally gets to sit in front of Faahad. This is followed by an amazing montage sequence where we see Vadivelu in a blood-stained shirt, holding a gun in one hand and an aruval in the other. As someone who grew up on Vadivelu comedy, I felt lucky that I got to witness this event on the big screen.
There was not much mass-ey pay-off that mass-ey setup (perhaps the only mass-ey scene in the entire film) because we do not see any kind of fight sequence that would typically follow such a setup. But Mari isn’t your typical director. Instead of a fight scene, we get a heartbreaking scene whose mood and tone was perfectly set by the dialogue "Panningale enna pa panna poraanga. Irukaadhu pa. (Why would they do anything to pigs? They’re just poor, harmless pigs.)" What a punch to the gut that line was.
After the breaking of the glass ceiling, Maamannan’s experience as a seasoned politician begins to shine through. It is not that he always takes the hit, he knows when to use the ability to take a hit to his advantage (we see this in the funeral scene where they try to humiliate him). This is the political maturity that the news anchor talks about too. Of course, how can one not talk about Vadivelu’s acting? He portrays the heavy-heartedness of the character just perfectly and one cannot help but want to see Vadivelu in more such roles. Also, this is yet another example of how comedians typically get typecast as comedians but when given a chance, they showcase exceptional acting range. Suri in Viduthalai is another recent example. This goes to show how comedy roles, while typically overlooked by many because it is only a side character, are a great place for actors to sharpen their acting chops.
There is no cinematic flair in the frames or transitions. Mari Selvaraj and his team keep things grounded and raw. In fact, they double down on the rawness by even removing color - using only black and white for many of the intense scenes. It is clear that Mari wants the focus to be on the story, and the metaphors in it and it works wonderfully.
A random aside: the visuals of saree-clad women playing electric guitars and drums was so fresh and quirky that it will remain etched in my mind for a long time.
Like many, I too did not enjoy the 2nd half as much as I did the first. It becomes too generic but the work that Mari did in the first half and the performances of Vadivelu and Faahad keep you interested.
Although Mari’s films tackle heavy topics, he does not preach. He shows. He shows the story of those who suffer oppression and injustice. In doing that, he shows how stories have a greater reach than preaching.
I’ve seen many people say things like “That evil person will get ahead in life because he is evil, he can just climb his way up by pushing others down. It is only people like us - who take morals and ethics seriously, who are nice - that suffer”. But as this story shows, being persistently nice pays off. You win the long game while those who get ahead by unethical means lose. And the long game is all that matters.
Until the next film!