"Mehandi Circus" Review: A Simple, Typical Yet Powerful Love Story

Starting with a short animated short, Mehandi Circus seems to be a childhood folk take of prince and princess. The simple love story, however, is added up with knives and harsh reality. Back to the present day, the movie turns out to be a tragic story in which, Mehandi the princess is bed-ridden while Jeeva the prince is drunk and weaken. Mehandi Circus, in short, is a story of love and loss, honor and pride. 

The 90s Nostalgia

Directed by the debutant director Saravana Rajendran, Mehandi Circus sets back to the life of Poomparai, Kodaikanal in the 1990s. The movie pays tribute to Ilaiyaraaja’s eternal songs which vividly relives the spirit of the time. To make it more realistic, the film even deliberately reminds us of the emerging AR Rahman while Harris Jayraj wasn’t also on the scene.

A Typical Love Story

Apart from a few interesting parts and the Raaja nostalgia, the love story of them lead pair seems to be not that appealing. It merely loves at first sight between Jeeva (Madhampatty Rangaraj), a cassette shop owner, and Mehandi (Shweta Tripathi), who is a part of a circus. They have a sweet meet, fall in love, sing and dance together. In general, there is nothing much different from other romantic films we’ve seen over the years.

Of course, their relationship faces some obstacles, and the biggest one appears to be Mehandi’s father. The head of the circus troupe challenges Jeeva to perform a dangerous circus stunt if he wants to get married to his daughter. However, the rather utmost obstacle was overcome with little effort. The final blow comes a few years later as a third-wheel, which gets us completely exhausted.

Mehandi - The Girl With Instincts

Even though the film mostly focuses on Jeeva, Mehandi appears to be the better-written one. While her boyfriend Jeeva is a carefree and dreamy man, the circus girl is a thoughtful and complex woman. She is the result of the legacy and comprehensively surrounding oppression.

RJ Vigneshkanth has nailed his part as a comical friend who evokes good laughter. His comedy one-liners on AR Rahman’s music is one of the highlights of the film. Meanwhile, Vela Ramamoorthy’s role as the love-struck priest is beloved.

The Twits And Turns

In a fatalistic plot, the two leads show little effort of being against the odds. While Jeeva has given up his life since 1992, Mehandi has stopped hoping. “What can women do?” the question raised at a point. From that point, we, the audience also give up hoping for some happy ending and start expecting Jeeva to watch his lover die.

The love story turns out to be a sequence of pains and loss when the camera starts panning from Mehandi and Jeeva being hit by casteist forces to their hosts crouching down in fear in their own home, from the “save the children” letter” to Periyar and Ambedkar’s photos. It seems like Saravana Rajendran is trying to say even Periyar and Ambedkar can’t help this miserable country.

A Passive And Amicable Approach

On the contrary, the director chose a less confrontational approach to present his objectionable ideas. While the casteist father was moved aside effortlessly, the third-wheel evanishes mid-way. Instead of ending up with a peculiar climax focusing on the matter of love, the curtain falls on pride and honor.

On the whole, Mehandi Circus has accomplished its purpose of being a likable film, mainly focusing on the young audience. This sound-like-childhood-folktale entertainer will satisfy you in its way!

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