Maja - Kadi Sazaa

The opening scene was so threatening that we believed it would be an action movie. The villain Biju Menon with treacherous weapon in his hand kills an innocent looking guy. So we nail bitingly waited for an action packed film.

But in the next scene, when Vikram and Pasupathy, the foster brothers fight on the streets, their usual habit to decide who won, and with Manivannan, their foster father, being the judge, we revised our opinion and prepared our mind for a comedy dhamaka.

When they decide to give up mugging and settle for some decent living, we thought it is going to be a thorough family entertainer, with Vikram raising high to become a great entrepreneur like Rajini in Annamalai.

When they decide to give up their lorry for the sake of woman Pasupathy loves, we decided it is going to be a romantic movie from that moment.

So as every scene passed, we kept on guessing. But Shafi had a directorial touch in every scene that we remained confused till the end of the movie.

But no, I saw ads in tv proclaiming it to be a comedy movie. Vikram took it too seriously, that he almost cracks jokes even at the very serious sentimental scenes. The extremely hilarious moments come when vikram forcedly marries Asin, and after few scenes, he gives lecture why this marriage should not persist. He realizes how illiterate he is and how bad his past was. He hilariously narrates these to Asin, pleading her to break the marriage. The whole theatre tried hard to control laughter. Because it would be intellectually incorrect to laugh at an emotional scene. But that was really funny.

The next hilarious moment was when Asin narrates the ‘thali mahathuvam’ to Vikram. Really Shafi should be patted on his back for his confidence. It needs tremendous courage to release that movie, to add to all this, to advertise it as the best comedy of diwali. The wonder is, the theatre was jam packed. Vikram’s brand name pays.

But Shafi realized the hollowness in story, and felt a probable loss it seems. Hence he had been extremely cautious not to spend too much. Asin’s costumes looked like 250 rupees costumes from Saravana Stores.

Though I had no idea who the music director was, I vaguely guessed it to be Vidyasagar. He is remake of Deva. Capable of giving worst output, yet managing to retain a decent position. My guess turned out to be correct. The songs were nothing but clatter and only during those song scenes I realized how deprived we women are. If only I happened to be a male, I would have forced myself out to have a relaxing ‘dum’, no matter whether I had the habit of smoking or not.

Asin had no role to play. Neither have I believed Vikram had any. But it was admirable that she did not turn out to be an obnoxious dancer with dirty steps.

In short, maja is not even worth watching in thiruttu VCD. I am sure, after few months sun TV will announce, ‘ulagath tholaikkatchigalil mudal muraiyaaga, Vikram nadiththa ‘maja’.

At home, having the liberty to switch channels, with no need to get tied up to our seats, we can really enjoy that movie, enriching ourself clearly how a masala movie should not be shot.