Mussanje maatu; an average entertainer

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , , , , , , | Posted on Monday, June 09, 2008


Dir: Mahesh
Cast: Sudeep, Ramya
Music: V Sridhar

First of all, the reasons why I wanted to see this movie – The posters of the movie seemed interesting, The director was a debutant, Sudeep was donning an interesting look, Music was superb and last but not the least – my intuition said its gonna be an interesting movie. Hence I went to see Mussanje Maatu.

Pradeep played by Sudeep is an RJ, a happy go lucky person, meets depressed Tanu [Ramya] in a train from HubLi to Bangalore. Pradeep hesitantly inquires the reason for her depression, but does not get an answer from Tanu. And predictably by the time Pradeep alights in his destination, Tanu would have left. Pradeep keeps searching for the interesting girl he had met in train. Along side, the screen play gives an elaborate introduction of Pradeep’s job profile. He consoles, suggests solutions and fills hope in the lives of depressed callers in his show Mussanje maatu. Thus he is quite an integral part of many lives of radio listeners in the city. As the viewer was given a glimpse of Tanu’s depression, she also gets to dial in to the show hosted by Pradeep. Then they get to meet up, talk, shop together, roam together and what else… Pradeep falls in love with Tanu. If you are a regular watcher of commercial movies of South Indian languages and is used to the little predictable twists here and there and a happy ending, you can never go wrong in guessing the rest of the story.


Talking about the different technical departments of the movie, debutant director seems to have chosen a safe script and is heavily influenced by the usual masala in the movies. His talent needs to be assessed when he comes up with a more creative attempt. Sudeep is refreshing with his hip new look suiting his profession, looks ultra slim too. Sudeep impresses with his mannerisms and dialogue delivery, but his-both-hands-always-in-pocket-style looks repetitive. About Ramya, she has gone past the mark of chubby and looks plump; she has to think seriously about reducing. I did not find her acting special in the movie. Rest of the cast has nothing much to do. I seriously don’t understand why Anu Prabhakar accepted the role of Ramy’s friend, she has no special role to play in the story.


What disappointed me was so-so cinematography, less effective dialogues and below average art direction. Not to blame the cinematographer [Sundernath Suvarna] completely for his work, may be viewers' expectation has increased seeing other cinematographer's works post release of Mungaru Male, GaalipaTa etc. Though the scenic beauty had nothing to play special in the movie, but it is sad to say there was not a single scene in the movie which made me say the camera work was ‘waaaww’. Oh did I forget to mention there are lot of scenes in the movie shot in and around Sankey park..


Any love story keeps open the gates for plausibly effective dialogues, but this movie had no such dialogues. About the art direction, it disappointed me in the very first scene. Viewers needed no extra effort to notice the yellow cloth (!!) bearing the name HubLi, which was pasted poorly on the actual name board of which ever town they shot that very first train station scene in.


Now what impressed me most is the music of the movie. ‘ninna noDalentho’, sung by Sonu and Shreya is another gem of a romantic number, ‘kaddaLu mansanna’, sung by Kunal Ganjawala is simply superb and rest of the songs are also very pleasant. Thumbs up to new music dir, V Sridhar for his commendable debut.


All in all, an average movie..

PS: pic courtesy oneindia.in

Comments (3)

Mussanje Maathu was one of the most "hyped" movies of the year.. and it was given a higher rating by TOI coz the channel Sudeep represents in the movie is 98.3 Mirchi which is a part of the times group. And in case you have observed, it is the same channel which plays the songs of the movie very often when compared with others!

Agree to one point there... We have higher expectations out of a much awaited movie coz of the standards set by movies like Mungaaru Male or Gaalipata.

ohhh hangaa vishaya.. It never flashed to my mind. All marketing gimmicks..

But music is good maga..

movie is nice

Post a Comment