Maaman

Family dramas always make up for great stories. There’s drama, never-ending conflicts, and a whole lot of plots and sub-plots to make for a wholesome script. Yet, this is one such genre that could always fail, if the script is not taken care of. Director Prasanth Pandiyaraj’s ‘Maaman’ is one such film that explores the relationship between Uncle Inba and his hyperactive nephew Laddu. Inba (Soori) is a perfect husband-material according to Rekha. He respects the women in his life – his sister Girija (Swasika) and his mother (Geetha Kailasam) – the most. Inba’s sister Girija has to bear the brunt of society’s sharp words because she has been childless for a decade. When she gets pregnant with Nilan aka Laddu (Prageeth Sivan), Inba is more present than her husband (Baba Baskar). Let’s put it this way – Inba’s overpowering love doesn’t let her husband be the husband and the father he wants to be.

There is an old couple in Maaman played by Rajkiran and Viji Chandrasekar. His name is Singarayar and hers is Pavun. Their subplot has no bearing on the central conflict (which itself doesn’t seem to find closure), but this digression is intended to draw a parallel between their relationship and that of the lead couple Inba (Soori) and Reka (Aishwarya Lekshmi). It’s a rural attempt at recreating Ganapathy Iyer (Prakash Raj) and Bhavani Ganapathy (Leela Samson) from Mani Ratnam’s OK Kanmani. If you’ve followed Tamil cinema since the late ’90s, you’ll know exactly how this relationship will play out—down to its morbid end. A running, friendly tussle between them is that Singarayar only buys her flowers but doesn’t braid them into her hair himself. The emotional payoff is designed to move you to tears, and if it does, Maaman will strike many such chords throughout. If it doesn’t—and you squirm at the melodrama—the film will feel like a bundle of clichés.