Meagamann (2014) User Reviews

Good scripted Action Entertainer which fails to hit the bulls eye

[naveensankaran18 · 7/10 · 30 December 2014]

First of all, a big thanks to the director for taking forward a subject in a slightly different perspective. Meagamann deals with drugs, police, undercover agent, faith, lose - all these has already been done and dusted in cinema. But this is actually a very good scripted movie which uses all these elements to its advantage. It is, though, let down a bit by its execution.

Pros: Arya is very much suitable for this role. He did justice to the role.

Screenplay is another plus as it grips the audience by throwing in something to hang on.

Dialogues - unlike traditional commercial movies, no unwanted lengthy dialogs are placed. Appreciable one.

Movie length is a big plus as it makes it more crispy.

Can be made better:

Hansika's role is almost unwanted and she is wasted in the movie.

Unwanted scenes that are targeted to bring out laugh in us but eventually fails in second half.

Editing is very good in certain parts but it lets down in certain key places.

Character importance is not given and their background is not explained well enough for the role to sink in.

Overall - a gripping enough action entertainer that will have a surprise ending! Worth for the money. Better than many commercial masala movies.

Best movie of the year.. Different direction of the genre

[stylegamer · 8/10 · 30 January 2015]

An intense thriller that sheds light on the deadly cold war between powerful drug cartels and the police. We have seen such gangster vs cop thrillers in Tamil cinema before but this movie takes the genre a few notches up though the movie execution is quite similar to the 2003 "Khakka Khakka" acted by Surya. This plays more like a Hollywood cold war spy thriller in Tamil

Meaghamann takes a while to pick up, with the director taking his time to introduce the dozen or more major characters. But once we get the background info on the various gangs, cops and the moles on either side, we are drawn into the plot, which is intricately woven and manages to keep us on the edge of our seats. The pre-interval portions, especially, are quite tense and intense Firstly this movie does not have much songs and any intro songs, hard hitting music to introduce ajith, vijay or any popular heroes to establish the characters, it just goes right into them without wasting time on unnecessary distractive introductions or comedy scenes . The director Maghil Thirumeni have previously directed the ultra dark crime noir movie "Thadayara Thakka" but in this movie has avoided direct gruesome or violence scenes but concentrated more on thrilling the audiences with mindbending wits and shrewdness. The killing of a police officer after being discovered is mentally gruesome scene which lets u imagine the aftermath rather than show it all .We can see the director;s touch for such scenes from Thadayara Thakka A few loopholes in the movie which are barely noticeable But, Maghilzh Thirumeni has a flair for staging tense sequences as proved in his previous film, Thadayara Thaaka, this too, has some solid nail-biting moments) and that helps us look over the flaws. An definite upcoming director soon the join the ranks of Gautham menon

Do not go in expecting chartbuster songs as the songs are pretty non existent in this movie

THe art direction and camera-work is top notch and apt for the film. the only lacking aspect is the background score which seems to be minimal.But overall adds on the tense mood throughout the film. overall the director carries the crime noir from his previous movie into this one albeit slightly differently . Highly recommended .

A Cat And Mouse Game With A Few Flaws

[arundathi · 7/10 · 25 January 2015]

Meaghamann is an slick film. The screenplay was very interesting and unique to Tamil cinema. There were quite a few twists and turns that made the movie interesting and fast-paced.

After almost a year, Arya is back. He has proved that he has the talent to carry the weight of the film. Hansika is terrible. The director tried to showcase a different side of a heroine (other than a glamor role) but it failed. She was quite abusive and rude and her dubbing voice did not always match her expressions. Also, some of her dream sequences towards the end of the film were 'offensive,' giving wrong impressions about herself and Arya. Her friend was also pointless. The three main villains of the film (Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi and Sudhanshu Pandey) each did a good job. Unfortunately there were too many characters in the film that it was hard to give everyone equal screen time. One of the villains were forgotten only to be given a random scene towards the end of the film as a reminder that he was in the movie.

Editing and cinematography were pretty good. The former helped the movie move at a reasonable pace but the latter was very simple but effective.

The songs by S. Thaman were forgettable except for the background score and theme music.

Overall, this film was quite good. Had the director reduced the amount of characters, this film would have been even better.

Underrated

[karthikeyangaan-871-663656 · 9/10 · 3 September 2018]

This is lot better than 6.8 stars it has now. It is one of the best thrillers in a while. Watch it you won't regret.

Good Movie to watch worth for the money.

[rajivgandhi-chakkaravart · 9/10 · 25 December 2014]

Worthy Watch movie, Nice acting and nice screen play, The movie starts with nice screen play were Arya is an under spread cop IPS officer who jointly work with rowdies for many years and look for correct time to catch all the rowdies and head, while he hunt down the source inside his group to discover numerous secrets.

Movie begins right from the first scene and goes in an unfaltering pace till the end. no much comedies and no much punch dialogs.

Heroine has no role in this movie.

Over ALL Good........

Rajiv

Worth watching!!

[ayyappan-psgcivil · 9/10 · 20 November 2015]

Story and screenplay are gripping. Hero's role was modeled beautifully as an intelligent guy capable to handle any kind of situation.scenes with heroine might be considered calming down scenes in a intense movie, but they are OK. More of a thriller rather than family, commercial flick. It may not go well with Indian audience.Hats off to director in writing a good script and directing. Editing is below par, should have been better. background score is just OK for a thriller. A little bit fun element would have made it better. A must watch for all Tamil audience. better than most of the recent action movies. The scene before the interval and after the interval were awesome

Brilliant story and crisp cinematography

[sunil-iyer03 · 8/10 · 24 June 2022]

Saw the same scorpion sign on the bags like kaithi and Vikram. Added it to my watchlist just for the genre.

The good : No messing around approach by the director thus bringing in relevance to the plot in the first scene itself. Some brave camera angles and brilliant use of low light. Arya stays loyal to his role and definitely does justice to a well written character. Brilliant supporting cast all through. Tight and engaging storyline till the end that runs away from the cliche twists and turns in a plot. The chess reference at the end was top notch The bad : Hansika's screentime was absolutely not required and could have been used for an extended climax. Screenplay could have been much better where the rest of the characters also occupying some screentime. Chop and chop style edited fights are a bit of a let down. Some choreographed longer shot fights would have packed a punch and would have elevated the story.

Long diversion from the actual plot to hansika's overacting was the key letdown.

Overall a tight movie with some brilliant execution from every department.

Dumb maaro dumb

[sesht · 3 January 2015]

Well, another week, another commercial potboiler, and for a change, something decent in the genre, though it takes its own time trying convince us that it is, indeed, trudging a path kinda different from others of its ilk, without trying too hard.

In hindsight, the screenplay was in place, and was perhaps something for everyone to sign up easily on, and most of the work was done by the time filming began. And, that's always a good thing, though its almost non-existent in the taking-audiences-for-granted-rightfully-so-since- they're-all-so-dumb-anyway-and-deserve-to-have-their-pockets-picked way. Whew. That's outta the way, at least for now.

Arya is someone I've always had respect for, as a performer, and more importantly, as someone who I thought could pick his subjects well, esp. from 'Pattiyal' and 'Arindhum Ariyaamalum'. However, many (and I mean that, many) of his other choices have him marked down, to me especially, and many others who were following his work closely., as someone else who doesn't mind plumbing the depths as long as it means him making the moolah. Sad, but definitely true. And all his good work since then has been a matter of good fortune, while there were inspired moments in 'Boss engir/da Bhaskaran', Aarambham and 'Raja Rani', and a few high-concept ideas that didn't pan out (Irandam Ulagam, Urumi et al).

Anyways, this time around, his choice pans out. The good things include: - Low reliance on 'action' movie tropes, and related sequences, and more focus on build-up; - Non-local actors lip-syncing to the appropriate language; - Complete absence of motherhood dialogues or monologuing; - Good editing, and seamless/smooth plot flow from one event to the other, trying to keep a semblance of logic in the proceedings, while also pandering to the LCD (more on that in a bit); - Just 2 songs, one of them in the background; - Impact of violence being kept (not to the fullest extent, but good enough for a commercial production) real; - Decent production values, stemming especially from use of real locations.

However, to me, this was mostly undone by what I call the 'Valkyrie' effect. People who should be talking in Marathi or Konkani end up speaking in Tamil, with nary a motivation to that fact, even though we're told at the beginning that this is the way the movie wants to roll. Conveniently forgetting a few of the side characters, including a few associated to the lead. Pandering to the LCD (lowest common denominator, i.e., all those who think Sallu-bhai movies are masterpieces of story-telling, and end up spending their hard-earned moolah on those atrocities) by having 'clever' inserts explaining/foreshadowing the next 'twist', or indirectly covering what came before (example - the 'needle in the haystack' headline).

(Spoilers, some rather obvious) The ending, with one of the main characters almost ignored for a few of the important events in the flick, has to be a first for any Indian commercial potboiler, since it is perhaps one of the rarest instances where a lead does not preach about what he/she does for a living and expect that to make a difference to his/her significant other, and realistically says what's what in terms of what to expect, and provides some solid advise/insight on life, and its expectations, while (almost?) walking away, and providing some fodder for sequel-izing. For once, sequel-izing didn't seem like a bad thing at all, and was almost like a logical next-step. It kinda redeemed all the other negatives that we had to encounter during the running time of this flick.

Overall, a decent commercial entertainer that can be enjoyed on the big screen, though allowances still have to be made for suspending disbelief, though thankfully not to an extent that you feel you're in the loony bin. Try watching it at the local multiplex, since this has had quite the wide release.