What went wrong with I Manoharudu ??

I Manoharudu ( Tamil, Telugu)   I (Hindi)  – All glitters are not gold.              

     

       

       

Release - 14th January 2015

Starring -  Chiyaan Vikram, Amy Jackson, Suresh Gopi, Upen Patel, Santhanam, and others.

Written and Directed by - Shankar 

Producer - Aascar V. Ravichandran

Languages - Tamil, Telugu, Hindi.

Available on -   Tamil - Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ7jf3ZkKHA&t=4281s

                         

A Madras local lad Lingesan is an aspiring bodybuilder to win the Mr. Tamilnadu and from thereon, to win Mr.INDIA well. Lingesan has a crush on the beauty diva Diya who rules the current market with her charm and grace, working for the top ad agencies in the country. Lingesan progresses to win the Mr. Tamilnadu title and becomes an ambassador for petty companies , this catches the eye of Diya, who is under immense pressure to checked out of the ad film industry due to her stern opposition to sexism and feminism and has to find herself a new partner to film her only big ad left. Upon Diya’s request to act along with her in a hugely branded advertisement so that she can retain her position in the market, Lingesan drops his dreams and joins hands with his crush Diya to be a part of her ad. The ad’s huge success makes Lingesan a brand new face for product advertising to foray one’s merchandise into the public. Lingesan in his rise makes few friends and many more foes, smashing their personal or professional lives which in turn makes them grudge against him. How did his enemies seek revenge?? Did Lingesan survive despite his both personal and professional loss?? How did he manage to fight back his life and his enemies?? forms the heart of the story.

       I Manoharudu is a movie which mounted its expectations and aspirations over the people’s minds with its publicity and the manner the movie’s samples were presented. The teasers and trailers were creating a radiolucent impact on the viewers with its colors, frames, setpieces, CGI and the list go on... The trailer showed the beauty of the movie in highlights and gave the audience full creative liberty to expect something never seen before with all the thrill wrapped with the dazzle the director is known for. But what we get in the theatres is a pretty commercial saga of a love revenge story. Sadly, the hype and buzz born out of the trailers backstabbed the movie’s success. The story expected and the reality shown on the big screen were poles apart. The movie had very normal writing in terms of the connect and gravity of emotions. It has an all-good hero and an all-good heroine opposed by the all bad villains whelmed with silly and dry comedy here and there, all coursing through the tides of the story written by Shankar. The feel-good of the movie gets very much separated as the predictability of the plot and the monotonous routine character arcs cross their paths into the storyline. This might be a result of very Lazy writing or an overly confident mindset of the writer. It is just that these routine elements are treated with creativity and grandeur that the movie at least sticks out as watchable in a few aspects. Now, this credit should be given to DIRECTOR Shankar. Shankar as a director along with his team fights the war further to win the hearts of all as he transcends his god-like imaginative ideas into the scene's technicalities that take the story to the next level. Be it China’s color-drenched locations or the beauty and the beast saga that runs in the song Ennodu Nee Irundhal or the pumping train action episode with death-defying moves or the shining reds and blacks wherein everyone seems to have got the retro pop-infused in them( in Aila Aila) and what not.... every frame has the mark of Director Shankar’s mesmerizing vision embossed on it.

  A.R. Rahman’s score to movie adds the soul, helps fight the war further as said before, as he nails every moment of cinema being neck to neck with Shankar’s vision. He can give rousing techno and beats (Ladiyo) in one and jump to the romanticizing and dramatizing opera(Aila Aila) which serve as the canvas for more creativity and jump to a pure heart-throbbing number ( Pookale Satru) with a classic guitar and again jump to a rustic and very Indian Mersalaayitten. Rahman’s music along with the background score does give a lot of scopes for the movie to rise and shine. Dir of Photography P C Sreeram does his job with the camera work as his visuals look outstanding and enthralling with the usage heavy nuclear back and sidelights and soda colors which get filled in the frame of stylized and poignant imagery. He captures the virgin locales of China with a deft touch and also does justice to the darker portions of the movie with ample silhouettes. But all this beauty feels externalized, very bland and absurd as the story has a big drop in the compelling factor. The bad parts still aren’t over.

The movie gets screen written in a non-linear fashion, which in any way doesn’t help to make the plot poignant and connecting as the movie becomes more obvious to the viewers and feels tad boring as the after parts get revealed alongside the before. This becomes a textbook example of bad screenwriting. The editing also has its bleeding injuries. The shots get cut in a more relaxed and sober manner in complete contrast to the trailer which was a zappy and energetic infusing thrill at the drop of the hat. Here we get a strictly normalized treatment which at times is off sync with the thrilling visuals and the music the movie has set. Vikram became the Christian bale of Kollywood with shape-shifting himself into any form the story demanded. He should be appreciated for his dedication and spirit for the movie. The struggle and sacrifices can be seen in the fine quality of his performances alongside Amy Jackson who also gets respectable marks. The movie took four years to be made. The makeup and prosthetics cost a few million dollars, a special team from New Zealand was hired to bring out the look and it took hours and hours to put on so as to get the right look. The CGI work done was also expensive and every penny put into it could be seen in the clarity and naturality of the CG work. But as a moviegoer, all these factors doesn’t and shouldn’t influence much and it is ultimately the movie wherein all these factors should unify as one and create magic, but that just doesn’t happen. The movie gets publicized in the wrong way completely misdirecting people to expect a story which is not a very normal romantic revenge commercial saga but the enticing and edge of the seat one which the post-production did assure us of. 

I Manoharudu is a movie which has the crew doing their jobs right and with satisfaction guaranteeing a great vision, grandeur, rich CGI, tuneful and sweet music, eye feasting visuals, but an equally good story?? Is what it mostly doesn’t guarantee. Just like the phrase Don't judge a book by its cover, I think we have to come up with a new phrase - Don't judge a movie by its Trailer.