Maareesan Review: Fahadh Faasil - Vadivelu Movie Is Poetry With Little Flaws

Helmed by Sudheesh Sankar and written by V Krishna Moorthy, Tamil-language comedy thriller Mareesan featuring Vadivelu and Fahadh Faasil in lead roles is pure poetry at times but turns dumb as the screenplay finds it difficult to convey what I actually meant to be. Maareesan, with music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography by Kalaiselvan Sivaji, and editing by Sreejith Sarang, chooses a good story but falls flat when proper creative ideation needed in certain scenes. So far you as a reader felt all negativity in this reading, hold your horses. There three important elements in Maareesan that will surprise you.

One: The story. It’s a story of a thief and a common man. The thief, Dhaya portrayed by extremely talented acting powerhouse Fahadh Faasil, is your normal thief who steals from as and when he finds an opportunity. But, pitted along with him (for the second time in recent years after the critically acclaimed Maamannan) is Vadivelu as Velayudham Pillai, a common man who is out there with something unexpected of him. There are many movies with thief and good Samaritan characters travelling together, but this story has a different plot which has used the geniuses of both Fahadh Faasil and Vadivelu, former a creative maverick who chooses to do everything differently while the latter is veteran of many roles and latest find in the perfect character roles. That is where you will find the two other major positives of Mareesan.

Before getting into detail about them and their performances, a little more about the story: Maareesan here in a way is Maricha of Ramayana. Though the movie is not concentrating on the beginnings of the epical Maricha, it somehow ends with the transformational portrayals which is more evident in the Kamba and Adhyathma Ramayanas of South India. Though it is not a new reading, Maareesan takes a complex route to tell you the story in detail.

In the Kamba Ramayanam, according to some readings, Maricha is portrayed with a deep awareness of Rama’s divinity and fear of Rama is shaded with reverence and resignation, as Kambar depicts him not simply as a fleeing rakshasa but as someone who recognises the futility of opposing a divine force. In Maareesan’s story Maricha is Fahadh (as this writer understands) and becomes an integral part of Pillai’s plans in the movie. Now comes another question: Is Pillai Rama or Ravana? That should come from the point of view of the viewer ultimately. But there are some explicit details: the golden deer episode, a major motif in all the versions Ramayana, which symbolises the allure of illusion and deception, is here as well, and rather than the characters, it’s the viewer is being deceived till the end.

In the Kamba tradition, Maricha’s acceptance of his fate is not just a surrender to circumstance but is interpreted as a kind of ultimate submission to dharma – choosing death at the hands of the divine over an unrighteous life, which is suggested as being liberating rather than tragic. Here as well, Dhaya is liberating himself.

Here is the second positive thing: Fahadh Faasil. The movie is full of Fahadhisms. His dialogue delivery, movements, the way he walks and trying to find methods that can fit into Tamil scripts, etc. He is reinventing himself in many ways. The moment his face gets into a different territory of acting when he was slapped by Vadivelu in a scene one example. His way of presenting deception and deviations is special to his calibre. In Maareesan, you will see the Fahadh of Vikram, Maamannan, Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, Vettaiyan, Joji and Kumbalagi Nights. Though the movie will give a Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum vibe in the beginning, but it splinters into different shades of Fahadh as the story progress.

The third positive element is obviously Vadivelu. He is the protagonist in the movie. Though Maareesan starts with Fahadh’s introduction and building the character arc, as Pillai enters into the movie, all and everything becomes about him. You will see a happy Vadivelu, distraught Vadivelu, confused Vadivelu and also a rebel.

If the makers had been careful about handling the climax scenes with a bit more realistic rather than the forced cinematic scenes, Maareesan would have had a better engagement ratio towards his the end.