Ladies Special
STORY:
The story starts in 1978, and we are shown three girls- Gomatha, Rani Amirthakumari and Subbulakshmi- who are friends in college. But life separates them and years pass by.
Cut to present, the three now live in their respective own worlds.
Gomatha (Urvashi) is a widow and her son Surendar (Madhavan) works in abroad. She lives with his fiance, Prabha (Jyotika), a documentary filmmaker.
Rani (Bhanupriya) is now in Agra, and her husband (Nasser) and son (Pavel Navageethan) are politicos. Subbulakshmi (Saranya Ponvannan) is a beautician, whose marriage with Mangalamoorthi (Livingston) lacks happiness.
Prabha, who is intrigued by Gomatha’s memories of her long-separated college friends, decides to unite them. And she takes them on a trip for three days.
The changes that the trip brings in the lives of the three women and their families form the crux of Magalir Mattum, directed by Bramma of Kutram Kadithal fame.
ANALYSIS:
Magalir Mattum, as you would have become clear by this time, is an out and out feminist film. At the same time, it is not preachy. It is feel-good and filmi too.
Kudos to Bramma for presenting his second film too as a quality product. Writing is one of the highlights of the movie and enough importance has been given to each and every character.
Coming to the performance, Jyothika appears as a bubbly young woman, who is on a mission. Veterans Bhanupriya, Urvashi (who was there in Kamal Haasan’s Maglir Mattum too) and Saranya are crackers, delivering superb performance.
Without preachy tone, the film conveys the message of the importance women deserve and they too have feelings of their own. In 2 hours and 20 minutes, hardly we feel exhausted.
There are some let-downs, but the feel-good factor of the movie makes us overlook all the negative points. Prabha’s documentary is titled ‘The Great Indian Housewives’ and that is precisely what the film is all about.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pro: John Johnson
