Thursday, June 6, 2013

Nagaraja Chozhan MA, MLA

My review: Nagaraja Chozhan MA, MLA


Sequels are always difficult to make on many counts. Most of the time the makers find it impossible to recreate the magic of the first part. Even if they try their level best to do it, viewer’s acceptance is not that encouraging always because of the difficulty in recreating the emotional connectivity one had with the characters of the first part. Especially so if the time gap is too big that the making style, subject matter and the actors themselves are too old for the current generation to identify with.

“Nagaraja Chozhan MA MLA” suffers from all that. Manivannan’s sequel to his famous politically charged runaway hit “Amaithipadai” fails to create any impact this time. Shoddy writing in the screenplay department is to blame along with lackadaisical direction. Only saving grace is the dialogues writ with sarcasm that Manivannan is known for and Sathyaraj’s effortless rendition of the same.

Characters come and go with no purpose what so ever, none of them etched properly. Even Sathyaraj’s characterisation is poor and ill defined as compared to “Amaithipadai”. Characters of Seeman, Raghuvannan and all the female leads are shoddily treated. Manivanna seems to have invested all his energy in carving the characters of Sathyaraj and Manivannan, himself. Even in that the second role that Sathyaraj portrays is half-baked. Any extra could have done that role.




It is one and only Sathyaraj all the way. His flair for sarcasm, impeccable body language and dialogue delivery keeps the movie going. Manivannan looks too tired and sickly. Seeman is wasted. Raghuvannan is a bad actor. Among female leads Varsha is the only one who is adept when it comes to  acting. Komal Sharma overacts and Mrudula is average.

None of the songs are worthy of any mention while the background score is plain routine stuff. James Vasanthan is the composer.

Technically movie is tacky, D.Sankar is the cinematographer.

On the whole, “Nagaraja Chozhan MA MLA” is yet another reason why sequels don’t work more often than not.

Bottomline: One man show.

2/5

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