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Actor-director Cheran is known for taking a social issue in every film of his and thrashing it out in his inimitable style. His imaginative screenplay while coming out with a solution to the problem made him an instant winner.
Films like Bharathy Kannama, Vettri Kodi Kattu, Desiya Geetham, Pandavar Bhoomi and Thavamai Thavamirundhu were meant for a specific purpose. The audience identified themselves with the protagonist, a winning formula of Cheran’s offerings.
Hopes were on a feverish pitch on the promise of a special frame from Cheran’s stable. On a different path and taking an adjoining track, he has moved over to the life and culture in urban centres. He has tried to mirror the aspirations and dreams of the middle-class people living in a metropolis. The message for the youth is to maintain a dignity of labour, develop a passion for work and wait for the results to happen.
Cheran is on familiar zone, driving home a pertinent point of the contrasting life styles of the have and have-nots. Playing a simple character of a hair stylist (Kumar) aspiring for the moon, he finds someone in the same wavelength. The chemistry of Cheran and Navya Nair give life to the proceedings, prosaic for much of the early part.
Falling prey to the sugar-coated words of an insurance agent, Cheran looks for some easy money but comes a cropper. Trying his luck in acting – hopping from one studio to another reminds one of K Balachander’s films – Cheran gets the boot literally from his employer (Radharavi).
Sequence of events (cliched) finds Kumar landing in a job with an entrepreneur dealing in drugs. Behind bars, Kumar realises the hard truth that dreaming big beyond one’s means in an invitation to disaster.
A reformed Kumar comes out of the jail to begin his life afresh. Once his greed vanishes in thin air, he understands the intricacies of life and decides to do what he knows best – the scissor is back in his hand. The highlight of the movie is Dwarakanath’s cinematography and Ilayaraja’s catchy background scores.
Though clear of his intentions, the lengthy dialogues and the duration of the movie is a hindrance to the pace. Going overboard on the love-syndrome was an avoidable exercise. Possibly, the screenplay and storyline followed the course of the climax.
On the whole, Mayakannadi is no more than a honest attempt of Cheran. There is the stumble trying to mirror his magic here.
