1.5 / 4 STARS
DIRECTOR: RAVICHANDRAN
ACTOR: PRASANTH
ACTRESS: RINKE KHANNA
MUSIC DIRECTOR: HARRIS JAYARAJ
STORYLINE:
Vasanth (Prasanth) is the son of a very anti-terrorist minister Gajapathy (Raguvaran). Meanwhile, a North Indian terrorist plans to kill Gajapathy. A girl named Heena (Rinke Khannaa) comes to Madras for schooling and Vasanth promptly falls in love with her at first sight. As it turns out, Heena is the sister of the terrorist who wishes to kill Gajapathy. When the bomb attack that is meant to kill Gajapathy goes off but leaves him only winged and not killed, Heena is blamed for the murder, and chooses (randomly, of course) Vasanth's house to hide in. Vasanth hides Heena and tries to clear her name of the bomb attack.
COMMENTS:
In my screenwriting class last semester, my professor told us that in a movie, audiences will buy a maximum of one coincidence. Let's count how many there are in "Majnu."
An Indian minister is targeted by a terrorist who just happens to have a sister who comes to Madras and attracts the exact same Indian minister's son and is unrelatedly blamed for the terrorist attack on the Indian minister and out of the hundreds of thousands of homes in Madras picks the home of the guy who loves her (and the minister she is accused of killing) to hide in. Phew. What is that? Six-seven coincidences? Not a chance of buying this ridiculous story. Oh yeah, whenever Rinke Khannaa throws her thuppattaa, it lands on Prasanth, so add a couple of coincidences for that, too.
The storyline is just stupid and should have never been. But Ravichandran makes a better director than a story-writer, and the movie is at least sit-throughable (or maybe that is only in comparison with Prasanth's two previous outings).
But the real highlight of the movie is Vivek. This guy is drop- dead funny, and can make you crack up on sight. Majnu is not his best comedy role to date, but it is hilarious. And he single-handedly saves another movie from oblivion. Kudos, Vivek.
NOTE ON THE MUSIC:
Harris Jayaraj's music is getting awful repetitive. The music is nice, but nothing wonderful. The picturisation is also very usual. The best song: "Gulmohar Malarae," or "Mudhal Kanavae," though they both feel heard-before.
RECOMMENDATION:
If you're a Vivek fan, you'll want to pick this movie up on video. But otherwise, just skip the movie.
VIJAY VANNIARAJAN