Manmadhan Ambu: Movie review

Film Manmadhan Ambu Cast Kamal Haasan Madhavan Trisha Sangeetha Oviya Usha Uthoop Ramesh Arvind Oorvasi and others Cinematography Manush Nandhan Music Devi Sri Prasad Story Screenplay amp Lyrics Kamal Haasan Direction KS Ravikumar Producer Red Giant Movies Rating First the storyline Major R Mannar Kamal Haasan is an army officerturnedprivate detective Ambu Trisha is a popular actress known by the name Nisha who is in love with a businessman Madanagopal Madhavan Madan is suspicious about Ambus activities and keeps questioning her integrity Ambu has enough and walks away Madan meanwhile hires Major R Mannars Kamal detective services to find out about Nishas affairs with her costars His motivation is to prove her immoral and insult her in the eyes of public before formally parting ways Mannar takes up the assignment as he has to earn a huge sum of money for the treatment of his close friend who suffers from cancer Deepa Sangeetha a divorcee with two children is Ambus close friend who goes on an European tour aboard a luxury cruise Mannar joins them on board to carry out his surveillance over Ambu After watching Ambu closely for a few days Mannar tells Madan that his fears about her loyalty are unfounded Madan then loses interest in the results and turns passive when Mannar asks for his fee Smelling Madans cunningness Manar starts a game wherein he misleads Madan into believing that Nisha slowly develops an affair with someone on the ship Things take a different turn when Mannars trap not only fixes Madan but also takes in other unsuspecting individuals Mannar seeks Deepas help to end the game A producer who had long been chasing Ambu joins the scheme of things thus making it a laugh riot Meanwhile Ambu feels guilty as she finds that an accident caused by her three years back had killed Mannars wife While Mannar is not aware of who is responsible he is in no mood to take revenge for what happened in the past This attitude makes Ambu come closer to Mannar The rest of the story is about whether or not Madhan and Ambu come together and what Mannar and Deepas roles were in untying the knots Kamal has penned the story dialogues screenplay and lyrics He has deftly handled the myriad emotions of suspicion anger fear expectancy and relief of the lead players The complication in the relationship between Madhavan and Trisha has been depicted well Their verbal duel has come out sharp and credible Ambus selfassertive character her deeprooted friendship with Deepa Mannars ploy to save his friend and Madans suspicious outlook have been nicely put together to provide us with a clean entertainer The problem with the movie is its neither a fulllength comedy nor a serious film The second half could have been pacier and the climax more credible Too many English dialogues might affect the overall impact of the movie as many important conversations are in stylish English Director KS Ravikumar who has worked with Kamal in quite a few movies has kept up his reputation of executing the script perfectly It is interesting to see the flashback sequences narrated in the reverse mode It is surprising that Kamal has enacted a role which could have been done by any actor There is nothing special in his role and there is little scope for the veteran to showcase his skills Madhavan and Sangeetha on the other hand have almost got the role of their lives in this film Both have utilized this opportunity and have delivered astonishing performances Trisha has improved her acting prowess a bit though her looks have lost some of their charm But her own voice sounds good so she can continue to dub in her own voice in the future too Oorvasi Ramesh Arvind Usha Uthoop and many other artistes have done their roles albeit brief ones perfectly Manush Nandans cinematography in his debut film is topclass Devi Sri Prasads music is just about okay Manmadhan Ambu does impress but it lacks the punch to captivate the audiences