Cast: Arulnidhi, John Vijay, Iniya
Director: Sandhakumar
Rating: 3.5/5
Small Budget but big effect!
The lesser is said about the plot-oriented Mouna Guru the better it is for potential viewers. What makes a crime thriller interesting? Well it's the tight screenplay and time factor! That is what debutant director Shantakumar has done in his debut directorial venture Mouna Guru, which has Arulnidhi and Iniya in lead roles. When his generation stars wants to mouth punch dialogues and bash the goons in every single frame, here comes Arulnidhiwho always manages to do something different every time; whether it is his debut venture Vamsam or the second film Udhayan. Mouna Guru is a thriller with good intentions. However, it ebbs and flows because of the switches between the engaging plot and a half-baked love story that has little to do with anything.
Interestingly Mouna Guru has a tricky plot! College goer Karunakaran (Arulnidhi) always finds it difficult to adjust with the society that he lives. As a result he is unable to control his anger and often ends up with some trouble. His unpredictable behaviour becomes a constant worry for his mother and brother. A series of incidents forces him to leave his home town Madurai and as usual ends up in Chennai. Despite scoring high marks in school, he joins a local arts college in the city and stays in hostel from where the trouble begins.
Now there is another story which goes parallel. While traveling from Bangalore to Chennai Assistant Commissioner Marimuthu (John Vijay), Inspector Rajendran (Madhu), Sub-Inspector Selvam (Balakrishnan) and cop Perumalsamy (Krishnamurthy) witnesses a car accident. When they are about to take the victim (son of Bangalore based business tycoon) to a nearby hospital, they come across a huge stash of cash. The policemen kill the (half dead) victim and flees to Chennai with the money. A cluster of lies, ego clash at the hostel and family's ignorance brings innocent Karunakaran into this crime plot! Then we have the sincere police officer Palaniammal (Uma Riaz Khan) who takes up this case. The rest is a racy roller-coaster ride that you have to watch on screens!
What starts on a thrilling note proceeds with the same tempo till the end, but spare for few slow and sluggish moments that could have been trimmed in second hour. What brings this to a temporary halt is the intermission. Do we really need intermissions for thrillers? Seriously, are we expected to compartmentalize our emotions? And f course the love track was slow and kind of lame.
Everyone has acted really well. Iniya, who appears as Karunakaran's love interest, does her part well too. The actress has also dubbed in her own voice, which has become a rare thing in Kollywood. upporting Shantakumar's racy screenplay is Thaman's background scores, which fits the bill perfectly. And the surprise factor is that all the songs are well placed in the film. Mahesh Muthuswami's excellent camera works, Raja Muhammed's sleek cut, A.A. Devaraj's realistic locations needs a special mention.
Sometimes we get to see few surprise packages in Tamil Cinema and this is one of them! Small budget but big effect!