Chennai: Eight years after making a sleeper-hit film ‘Mounaguru’, director Shantakumar is back with an intense thriller titled ‘Magamuni’, starring Arya, Indhuja and Mahima Nambiar in the lead.
The story first opens up with Arya, who is seen as an inmate in an asylum. The mystery about how he ended up there is then revealed through a flashback portion, where we see Magadevan (Arya) working as a driver in a travels. He is also someone who works closely with a local politician (Ilavarasu) and plots murders for him. His life takes a turn when he is chased by the brothers of one of the man whose murder was plotted by him.
In a parallel narration, the story of Muniraj (played by Arya again) is shown. He belongs to a lower caste and leads a simple life in Erode district. Inspired by Vivekananda, he practices Brahmacharya. Deepa (Mahima Nambiar), daughter of a local big shot, played by Jayaprakash, gets to meet him and they become friends. But the casteist father mistakes their friendship for romance and plots to kill Muni. With both Maha and Muni’s life at stake, what happens next and how their lives intersect forms the rest of the story, that is conveyed in an interesting manner.
Through Magamuni, we get to see the performer in Arya, back with a bang. After having done films like Madarasapattinam and Naan Kadavul, the actor has yet gain delivered a solid performance in Magamuni. Playing the role of an innocent Muni to a matured performance as Maga, the actor has differentiated the roles with ease.
The director also deserves special mention for giving strong roles to two women characters, Indhuja and Mahima Nambiar, both the actresses have delivered a strong performance. The movie has sharp dialogues that takes a dig on the current socio-political scenario, some dialogues in the movie, be it defining who God is or comparing caste with plastic with caste or the one describing how the English-medium education came into being deserves special mention.
Thaman’s background score elevates the scenes of the film. Cinematographer Arul Padmanabhan has done a good job giving freshness to the scenes. The director could have reduced the duration of the film and made it much more gripping. But overall, he has succeeded in giving the audience a different film that stands out from the rest.