Tuesday Jul 29 2008, Chennai

‘Muniyandi Vilankiyal Moondrammandu'

Directed by - Thirumurugan

Produced by - -

Music by - Vidyasangar

Casts - Bharath, Poorna, Vadivelu..

Banner - -

Director Thirumurugan, who made a smooth transition from small screen to silver screen through his debut in ‘Em Magan’, slips a bit in his second venture.  As happens with most new directors, he appears to be running short of ideas, having used up all the plots in his very first film itself.Traces of the father-son bonding that made ‘Em Magan’ a hit with the middle-class is very much visible in ‘Muniyandi...

’.  The only difference is that if Bharath was shown as naive in the first film, here, he takes on the ‘action’ avatar.The storyline isn’t something that hasn’t been attempted before: Care-free college student Bharath falls for Poorna, the daughter of a VIP in the village.  Once the love affair comes to light, trouble brews in both the families.  The rest of the story is the usual masala with Bharath taking on his enemies head-on.

Bharath appears to have lost considerable ground that he had earned through films such as ‘Pattiyal’ and ‘Nepali’.  Traces of his brilliance are visible here and there, but he is badly let down by the weak script, for which Tirumurugan has to take the blame.  The director falters noticeably in the costume department too, as Bharath is shown in dazzling costumes not suited to his role of a middle-class college student.Poorna, the much-talked about new face in recent times, looks homely and fits her character.  After his stunning performance in ‘Paruthiveeran’, Ponvannan, who plays Bharath’s father, gets to enact another meaty role and he has sunk his teeth into it.

  It should, however, be stated that at times, he goes a bit overboard.The biggest plus for the film is Vadivelu’s character: he plays a village simpleton who ‘specializes’ in getting rid of the ‘evil spirits’ that enter into human bodies.  He, along with his assistant (Kingkong), manages to leave the audience in splits.Bhaskar Shakti’s dialogues lack the desired punch.  Cinematography by the duo of Vaithi and Jayakumar is passable.

  Editing is crisp but again, the script plays the spoilsport.  For once, the normally reliable Vidyasanar disappoints with his insipid tunes.‘Muniyandi...

’ will find it difficult to pass the (box-office) test!