Muthirai – Stamps Class !
C. Karthik

Starring: Nithin Sathya, Daniel Balaji, Lakshmi Rai, Manjari Phadnis.
Direction: Srinath
Music: Yuvanshankar Raja
Production: Vision Jeeva Studios

We have always complained about the lack of racy – pacy movies that keep us busy. Here comes Muthirai, packed with action, sentiment, love and comedy all in equal quantities. Director Srinath, Jeeva’s disciple knows his tricks well and as a result, the racy story is further strewn with countless twists fuelling the pace of the movie ensuring that there’s never a dull moment in the script.

Muthirai’s story is a tightly knotted web that unfurls during the course of the movie with the help of plot aids, significant with such fast-paced movies such as double crosses, betrayal and murder.

Daniel Balaji and Nithin Sathya are petty thieves who steal passports, credit cards and pick pockets. While Lakshmi Rai is an ill-fated girl who is tricked to marry Daniel Balaji, Manjari catches up with Nithin during his adventures at a ladies hostel. All these characters accidentally cross roads with Chetan, who owns a killer video, and drive the movie to its unending twists and finally its conclusion.

Twists, like bolts from the blue, packed in every nook and corner of the script unfold rather unexpectedly. And since there are too may of them, you are made to forget the logic of the sequence sometimes. Fifteen minutes into the movie, Rakhi gyrates her way into the script lip-syncing the raunchy number ‘Night is still young’ in her barely-there garb. That sets the tone of the movie and everything from then on is uphill.

Daniel Balaji fits into the role with ease. His killer looks and the all-is-chill attitude works for the role. His dialogue delivery, though sounds monotonous at times, is effective too. Nithin Sathya too has done a good job. His naughty looks and his pranky attitude helps the movie go forward.

Lakshmi Rai has more to do in the film than Manjari. She is glamorous in the songs, makes you pity for her in touchy scenes and has done justice to her role as the female lead. Manjari is seen in a few scenes and a song and has nothing much to do in the film.

Director Srinath, Jeeva’s former Assistant, who has earlier done comical roles in a few movies has done a decent job in his first outing. His script shines in bits and could have been scripted better. If the drab in between and the logic in a few scenes have been controlled, this could have been a far better product. The screenplay is OK and again could have been much better if a couple of songs are chopped.

Yuvan has done a good job with the music. But surprisingly none of the songs get etched onto your mind. Anthony’s editing lacks the usual crispness.

Saleem’s camera loses out chances in many scenes and ends up being just above average. With a plot like this, the camera could just have enhanced the impact of the movie in more ways than one.

Muthirai has glamour, oomph, action, plots and sentiment in right quantities but there is a lack of consistency in the whole movie, be it camera, screenplay, plot, logic, editing or the music. If this has been taken care of, then Muthirai would have a huge success at the box-office. But again, Muthirai is definitely worth a watch.