There is something to be said about a film that wears its idealism on its sleeve, that desperately wants us to believe in the goodness of its protagonist, and in goodness per se. But the entire endeavour is undertaken in the spirit of gobsmacking propaganda sponsored by an evangelical organization.
The protagonist, Manickam, is a bit of a naïve bloke. He believes only good will come to those who are goodhearted. He is a hick angel without a halo. It takes an actor of Samuthirakani’s range to make Manickam look more sweet than strange. Even he, after a while, as the plot goes from east to waste, gives up the fight to humanize the unbelievably extolled protagonist and just flows with the tide of tireless altruism.
The plot is as naïve as its hero. Manickam is a working-class man struggling to keep his loving family of wife and two daughters (one of whom suffers from a vocal disorder) together. The initial montage shows the Happy Family singing, eating, and picnicking.
Oh, it is so much fun being poor!
Enter the evil influence of wealth, when an old man (filmmaker Bharathiraja, enjoying his belated acting stint) buys a lottery ticket from Manickam’s shop, but leaves the ticket behind with Manickam as he has no money to pay for it.
Now do-gooder Manickam must reach the lottery ticket to the old man, whose life reads like misery-porn, as a motley crowd of evil cops, family members, and random strangers try to stop Manickam.
Writer-director Nandha Periyasamy’s noble intentions never quite translate into worthy cinema. The sledgehammer treatment of the morality tale is unabashedly pedestrian. The narrative is stifled by token characters, like the pesky NRI co-passenger in the bus and ‘Rahim Chacha’ kind of token Muslim character played by Nassar, who teaches Manickam in his childhood that being good is the safest way to reach divinity, although we all know that in reality the good don’t last while the bad have a blast.
This film moves on the premise that nobility is equivalent to mobility. It is not a very convincing foundation for a modern-day morality tale. Thiru-Manickam has episodes that hold your attention, but overall, it is way too in-the-face to be effective as a morality tale.
