Maareesan

At what point do you start feeling bad about the idea of wanting someone dead? While watching the new Tamil-language film Maareesan, you crave nothing more than the satisfaction of seeing a middle-aged man murder child molesters. The movie aims to appease a primal desire buried deep within us, and it does so with patience and skill. But the catharsis is temporary. After a while, you’re going to have to live with yourself, a person who wouldn’t mind a few murders here and there as long as the ones being murdered are terrible people. But, the service that Maareesan is accidentally providing has a greater purpose. In its efforts to manipulate our inherent goodness — who wouldn’t want to watch bad people be punished? — it is exposing our blood lust.

If you said his comical expressions and reactions, you’d be mostly right. From Friends to Vetrikodi Kattu, Vadivelu’s body language and facial expressions when delivering funny lines have filled awkward silences in many drawing rooms as they play out on television. This continues to date on Tamil comedy channels. In Maareesan, his latest feature, written by V. Krishna Moorthy and directed by Sudheesh Sankar, Vadivelu sheds all those strengths. Here, he’s Velayudham, an Alzheimer’s patient who has largely forgotten his past. In his introduction sequence, he is chained and calling out to someone whom he thinks is his son.

‘Maareesan’ brings together Tamil comedy legend Vadivelu and brilliant performer Fahadh Faasil for the second time after ‘Maamannan’. While the two have their individual strengths, they are terrific performers. Give them any role, their eyes are enough to pull them off. Director Sudheesh Sankar’s ‘Maareesan’ is a comedy thriller, a genre that could either be effective or a total misfire. Dayalan (Fahadh Faasil) is a thief who is just out of the infamous Palayamkottai prison. In his words, certain houses talk to him and call him, so he could rob them. Soon after his return, he finds Velayudham Pillai’s (Vadivelu) house calling him. He breaks into the house to steal, but only to find Velayudham chained to his bed.