Manithan review: Stalin, Prakash Raj film doesn’t match up to Jolly LLB
I Ahmed tries to recreate the riveting roles of Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani and Saurabh Shukla through Udhayanidhi Stalin, Prakash Raj and Radharavi respectively in his latest Tamil outing, Manithan but fails badly.
Manithan
Director: I Ahmed
Cast: Udhayanidhi Stalin, Prakash Raj, Radharavi, Vivek, Hansika Motwani, Aishwarya Rajesh
Rating: 2/5
Films like Chak de India and Paan Singh Tomar excelled largely because they did not steer away from their core themes. The first about hockey, and the second about a disillusioned steeplechase runner-turned-rebel engaged me with their neatly crafted scripts and some fine pieces of performance. Subhash Kapoor’s 2013 Jolly LLB was as gripping with Arshad Warsi playing a bumbling young lawyer, Boman Irani a seasoned and celebrated advocate and Saurabh Shukla a sardonic judge.
For I Ahmed (Endrendrum Punnagai), it could not have been easy to recreate the riveting roles of Warsi, Irani and Shukla through Udhayanidhi Stalin, Prakash Raj and Radharavi respectively in his latest Tamil outing and a remake of Jolly LLB, titled Manithan.
Watch Manithan trailer here:
To begin with, Ahmed’s movie is 25 minutes longer than Jolly LLB, and the director uses this time to incorporate what to me seemed like a romantic preamble to the courtroom drama played out by Stalin’s Shakti and Hansika Motwani’ Priya amidst the rural landscape of Pollachi in Tamil Nadu. Ahmed also introduces a new character, a television anchor, portrayed with admirable elan by Aishwarya Rajesh who captivated us as the impoverished mother of the two boys in Kaaka Muttai.
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Shakti travels to Chennai, where the novice lawyer hopes to make a mark for himself. His first meeting with the much-feared, the much corrupt, but highly successful advocate, Prakash Raj’s brilliantly acted out Adiseshan, is one of awe. But when the young man in his desperation to earn a living, files a public interest litigation in a hit-and-run road accident case that has been argued by Adiseshan and closed, sparks begin to fly.
Read: Manithan funnier than the original, Jolly LLB: Udhayanidhi
While Prakash Raj outshines Irani in the Hindi version with his extraordinarily power-packed dialogue delivery, which greatly enlivens the dramatic events in court, Stalin is no match for Warsi, whose bumbling, dream-driven guy in a black jacket was such a pleasure to watch. And, Radharavi too pales in comparison to Shukla, whose characterisation of a bored judge was so nuanced with hitherto unseen mannerisms that I was floored.
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