Dhanush's Maari 2 Review: As Good As Spicy Sambhar

Director: Balaji Mohan

Cast: Dhanush, Sai Pallavi, Tovino Thomas, Krishna, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar

Rating: 3/5

Looking at the way Indians enjoy their masala and spicy food, you can imagine a perfect recipe for a successful movie: a breathtaking action film filled with twists and comedy scenes along with energetic songs and dances, but not every movie is the same. While Dhanush-starrer Maari is an ideal example of a great film meeting all of those criteria, the sequel movie Maari 2 could not receive the same great reviews.

The remarkable points about the film are its smooth running commentary of Sanikazhamai and Adithaangi, its unique dialogues like “If you are bad, then I am your dad,” and the comic timings of the cast.

The main character Maari is a thug living in Chennai. Although he has done bad things like killing, kidnapping, and smuggling, he is still loved by the audiences because he didn’t do it out of greed. Besides, he is faithful and values friendship more than anything since he’s never been in a relationship before. That is also the reason why he is so confused when he meets the love of his life Araathu Anandhi (played by Sai Pallavi).

You might see a lot of thugs, smugglers and gun runners as main characters of this movie, but Maari 2 is actually about romantic relationships and their ups and downs. The most favorable thing about this film is that you can find humor in unexpected situations such as that one time when Maari couldn’t keep his temper and started yelling at Anandhi because he thought that she didn’t bring him nothing but troubles. Maari later realized that it was a mistake and he sat in her car and explained why he couldn’t say out loud how he felt like her.

But this romantic moment was interrupted by an assassin trying to kill Maari for the 102nd time. Anandhi helped Maari take the bad guy down and asked, “Dude, couldn’t you come up with a different time? He was just getting ready to confess his feelings, and you had to interrupt?” To which Maari was flustered and replied, “What was I going to say?” The timing was perfect, and this scene was funny enough to become a highlight of the movie.

Tovino Thomas played Beeja, or Thanatos, a villain character who loves murdering people. He even has no hesitation in killing children to take advantage of them. After going to jail and being tortured there, he has gone mad and became evil. Tovino Thomas worked so hard to get into this character, but his performance sometimes seemed forced.

Maari 2 doesn’t have enough action scenes that the first part climax of the movie suggested, also. Maari and Beeja are both bad guys but Maari is depicted as a man with a golden heart, and that made the plot too easy to predict. However, Maari 2 isn’t too boring to watch, and it’s a movie suitable for all ages, a crowd-pleasing masala movie.

Most of the impressive scenes in Maari 2 were stunt scenes, the camera focused on each punch rather than the action of the characters. The scene in which Maari entered the court is narrated alongside the reason why he had to be there, those scenes were smoothly merged.

Dhanush’s dialogue in Maari 2 also suggested that he is willing to follow in the footsteps of his father-in-law Rajinikanth. When Dhanush said that although he was betrayed by his friend, he still wished him all the best, and this dialogue is linked with Dhanush’s real life. It’s just a short line, but the audiences still notice it.

Music of Maari 2 is not so impressive either. Although Maari’s Anandhi, the theme song of this movie, is a beautiful song and Ilaiyarajaa’s voice sparkled the chemistry between the two main characters, the Yuvan’s music is rather unremarkable.

>>> Also check: Maari 2 Movie Download For Free