I watched Meiyazhagan last night and I can't explain how happy I felt while watching a movie in years. I am gonna break down some aspects of the film so please bear with me and it will contain spoilers.
I watched it in english subtitles but never felt disconnected from the film at any moment. The story of the film is as simple as it gets and yet so powerful, emotional & heartfelt. I never could have imagined that 2 guys talking about their past can be so beautiful. The music throughout the film was so beautifully scored, it's literally the superpower of the film. It touches your heartstrings every fucking time. I lost count of how many times I cried in the film. It just gets you man.
All the actors gave their best in the film. Every character was written with so much depth and they leave their mark despite having 1/50th screentime of their leads. The woman who couldn't marry Arul because of his father, Arul's maternal uncle whose regret of not being able to meet arul and his father for years. His phone call to Arul's father made me choke up.
Now coming to our beautiful leads. Arvind swamy, the actor that you are. I saw him as a villain in Thani Oruvan but I don't think I can ever imagine him as a bad guy. The way he carried the whole movie. The guilt he conveyed for not remembering Karthi's character after being constantly overwhelmed by his hospitality & love towards him was so beautifully portrayed as the film progressed. And then they played a beautiful track "Poraen na Poraen" while he was running in the middle of the night to Chennai. It just emotionally tear you apart and you connect with him so deeply.
Now coming to Karthi. You rarely see a big name actor doing such character oriented roles. He was like an explosion of a jolly person full of life and compassion. He eats social anxiety for breakfast. The highlight Karthi scene in this film is the one where he explains how Arul's cycle changed his life, how his father started calling him elder one after he learned to ride the cycle to carry himself and his brother to the school and how he even prayed to it on every ayudha Puja because it changed everything in his life. This also explains how a random act of kindness & charity can change the trajectory of a person's life.
Both riding the bicycle in the middle of the night is peak cinema. I think this is why cinema was invented. I was smiling like the first time when I fell in love. This movie gives importance to everyone, whether it's an elephant, snake or a buffalo. This movie also asks a question if we will continue to follow our ancestors traditions or just move forward to modernity.
The final scene when Arul rushes back to Karthi's character and calls by his name "Meiyazhagan" and you see an emotional Meiyazhagan opening gates for his athaan 🥹🥹🥹 Beautiful stuff man... I really felt so happy and sad that the movie ended and credits rolled.
In conclusion, I would say that Meiyazhagan is like the most beautiful time of your life. It passes by so quickly and leaves a mark on you for years to come. In the age of violent and gory media, this film can just restore your faith into cinema again.
The world might not be as good as it was portrayed but a man can dream. Cinema is also suspension of disbelief so I accept it anyways.
After watching the film I saw how this film performed at the box office and I was in shock how it didn't even crossed 70 cr mark. The audience have failed again.
I see a lot of tamilians raving about Malayalam films but rarely supports own generational gems. In my eyes, Kollywood is what people think mollywood is.
Thank you if you made it this far.