Tamil actor Vishal has starred in more than 40 films and makes his directorial debut with his latest film, Magudam (Crown). The actor, who has also penned the screenplay, stars in the film along with Dushara Vijayan, Anjali among others. Vishal is known for his commercial entertainers that have plenty of action and slices of romance and comedy. And Magudam is expected to follow this pattern – so does it and is the effort successful?
At the outset, we meet Kirubakaran (Vishal), a medical rep, who struggles to live a happy middle-class life with his wife Jamuna (Dushara Vijayan) and their two kids. Kiruba’s father-in-law (Thambi Ramaiah) is obsessed with him owning a car and we see a comic track for the most part in the first half where Kiruba tries to fool him by pretending to own a car.
Kiruba and his family eventually decide to buy a car – despite their financial shortcomings – and hop from one car showroom to another only to be humiliated and turned down due to their financial status. But by some miracle, Kiruba manages to buy a BMW and drives it home proudly to show off to his father-in-law. He gets his family packing and they set off on a road trip to Ooty when things take a nasty turn.
While we see what’s happening to Kiruba in Chennai, there’s another story unfolding parallelly in Visakhapatnam, where an aged Linga Bhai (who is a powerful don) is shaking up the shipping industry by having acquired his fifth cargo ship. Keep your enemies close seems to be his motto but his enemies don’t necessarily follow this.
One of Linga’s rivals discovers Kiruba, thanks to his uncanny resemblance to Linga, in Ooty accidentally and this is when the film picks up. Kiruba, we find out, is the estranged son of Linga who has decided to live away from his father’s criminal empire. But his resemblance makes him a pawn in the dangerous game of revenge and power that Linga’s enemies unleash.
Vishal has decided to make his debut as director with a story written by Ravi Arasu and has chipped in by writing the screenplay for this film. The story is very 1980s and offers nothing fresh to the audience – a dreaded rich gangster, his estranged son and a revenge saga that we have seen play out numerous times before.
The story tries to blend sentiment – a man who loses his family – with revenge – taking out the people who killed them. The first half has comedy tracks by way of Thambi Ramaiah and Chitra Lakshman and some romance thanks to Dushara Vijayan.
However, these scenes seem contrived and they don’t blend together seamlessly and cohesively into the story. Numerous scenes are written very amateurishly with some unimaginative dialogues making the viewer cringe, especially during some of the interactions between Vishal and Dushara. Thus, the family portions of Kiruba are weak and one doesn’t connect to him or his family emotionally.
The second half moves into the revenge and action zone and there are some elements like the fisherwomen fighting that are a nice touch. On the whole, the screenplay by Vishal is a let-down and the movie is quite flat, just moving mechanically from situation to situation. There is no convincing emotional build-up through the film and by the end of three hours, it becomes a trying on-screen experience.
The big question is – should Vishal have made his directorial debut with this story? And the answer is no. The story is not novel nor are there any refreshing elements. This seems like a wasted opportunity for the actor to have established himself as director as this regular story template could have been handled by anyone. We don’t find Vishal’s distinctive voice in Magudam behind the camera or in the screenplay.
Where Vishal’s acting in the movie is concerned, it’s a cakewalk for him as he has worked in many similar roles earlier in his career. He is comfortable in the action scenes but the sentimental scenes could have used some work. He delivers where both Kiruba and Linga are concerned but he’s a tad more effective as the father.
As an aside, Vishal’s make-up as the aged Linga left a lot to be desired and the close-ups expose the flaws unfortunately. The female characters in the film, Dushara Vijayan and Anjali, seem more like props and are used to move the story forward rather than have substantial arcs. They deliver what is required of them. One must mention GV Prakash Kumar’s music and BGM as they add some much-needed relief in this film and help elevate it as well.
Magudam is an over-ambitious and yet under-whelming film from Vishal. The film really struggles to overcome its flaws and ends up as a disappointing directorial debut for the Tamil star.
