Summa maja

It’s the curse of the “Magnum Opus” effect: you give them a mega-budget masala with thrills, spills, murder, mayhem, Remo and 15-minute memory lapses, and you make them die for more. Your next movie has to have some corruption, revenge and Harris Jayaraj. Anything less is a cold thosai in their mouths.

So folks: get your butts off Anniyan and Ghajini: these were once-in-a-harvest kinda shows. Give them a break. [Ah, now I’ve rationalized with myself.]

Maja is a hilarious entertainer that plays it safe in all aspects. Well, not as safe as Vijay does in making all his movies having a standard template of entry songs, unbathed/unshaved/un-moved-bowels look, “item” number and smart-ass tactics against a bafoon of a villain (who’s actually a great actor in his own right). Safe, with regards to the storyline, treatment and flow of the narrative: it’s catered to the families and children. Easy on the stomach and the brain.

Vikram’s looking relaxed and enjoys himself after going through a very serious method acting class with Shankar in his Ambi-Remo-Anniyan avatar. He plays it easy, he plays it cool with his wild shirts and matching sarongs.

Pasupathy (from Mumbai Express, Virumandi) gives Vikram a run for his money by playing his hilariously endearing brother. Pasupathy’s antics were a joy to watch and although his scope was overshadowed by Vikram (because, erm, Vikram’s The Man), he showed that he was capable of comedy, fights and even romance! Yes! It’s bloody hilarious. He’s so good that even Vadivelu looks redundant and his histrionics are reduced to screaming matches with himself.

Our dear Asin… (wipes tear from left eye). After her phenomenal role in Ghajini, director Shafi has relegated the Fairever icon to a role Trisha Krishnan would love: a ‘calafare’ sidelined beauty whose life gets decided by everyone but her. She didn’t have much of a scope to shine, and I resent that (I guess it’s the Ghajini effect… got to… stop… it…).

As for “item” numbers: Sindhu Tholani (the promiscuous “Vaishu” in Manmadhan) does a dance with Vikram. And for a while it didn’t look like an item number at all: as you might have noticed, for typical item numbers, the female lead who dances is normally obese (Mumtaj), make-up laden and showing skin (Ramya, but I like), obese and irritating (Nayantara), or looking like a bar-top dancer (Seena Thana Woman). But Tholani looked as if she was the bloody heroine! I mean, she's quite a lithe maiden who's much better looking than some of the above-mentioned. Considering her acting abilities and Asin’s limited role, they might as well have put the low-budget Tholani as Vikram’s partner.

I hadn’t heard the songs before, but Vidyasagar did a pretty commendable job with the peppy numbers and duets. The theme score was catchy and danceable, I successfully controlled myself from dancing on the seat of GV Yishun. The songs were well picturized (and cute at times).

Overall, the team wanted to make a movie that was happy, funny and fast-paced, and just "maja" (which I gather to be a slang somewhat similar in meaning to "jamai" etc). But knowing the psychology of the mass audience, maybe it was not enough. Maja was all that (maybe a bit slow even), but it lacked the adrenaline-triggering fire of movies that project the fallen hero rising from near-death to avenge everything and everybody. Instead, Maja plays it so safe, it almost seems like a miniature mega-serial episode. Sure, it’s great fun, but the part that makes you go “DUDE! That was awesome” was lacking, and I think that’s what the mass audience have been trained to lap up (like how they’re apparently lapping up Sivakasi). And to make matters more hairy, there's a potential comparison with Vikram's previous show, which was a different animal altogether.

Anyways: Watch Maja for Vikram and Pasupathy. I’ll wait for Sivakasi on VCD. Going off for my media law exam now.