Rating: 3/5
Netflix’s original movie, ‘Meenakshi Sundareshwar‘ is the story of a couple whose bond of love strengthens after being forced to live in different cities. The long-distance relationship instills in them emotional tolerance, a deeper perception of each other’s feelings and everlasting trust.
Story
Sundareshwar’s family is looking for a suitable life partner and so is Meenakshi’s. Knocking on the wrong door allows the pair to meet with each other. Before the confusion can be settled, they are already in love. Meenakshi’s grandfather urges them to follow the will of God and the duo accepts each other happily.
Sundareshwar receives a job offer from a renowned IT company shortly after their marriage and wants to shift to Bangalore. He becomes aware of the job criteria of being a bachelor at the orientation ceremony. He decides to hide his marriage for the duration of the internship in order to receive a full-time job offer.
This creates a lot of chaos in both of their lives as Meenakshi is forced not to follow him to Bangalore. The internship requires Sundar to have a busy schedule which lessens their communication. This emotional turbulence widens the gap between the newlyweds who have little to no time to develop their relationship.
Ananthan, Meenakshi’s friend is her only comfort place who listens to her woes and consoles her. Everything goes haywire when Sundareshwar’s family judge their friendship and disapproves of her desire to take up the job offered to her by Ananthan in his tea estate. Meenakshi leaves Sundar’s home and starts working on her job role in the tea estate.
Meenakshi can’t ignore her deep-down feelings for Sundar and even Sundar tries communicating with Meenakshi with incessant apologies. Their fondness for each other stays constant. So, will they be able to solve their differences and reconcile?
Performances
Sanya Malhotra proves to the audience that Meenakshi’s role was created for her. She absolutely nails the character of a cool, urban, carefree girl donning cotton silk sarees and impersonating the legend, Rajinikanth in full action.
Her performance is outstanding and her energy radiates in every scene she’s in. She keeps the humour alive with her smart and quirky dialogues.
Abhimanyu Dasani portrays Sundareshwar’s character with such ease and control. The character fetches a person with a cool temperament and he never overdoes it. The duo’s chemistry on-screen deserves praise.
They are backed by notable performances by the likes of Purnendu Bhattacharya, Shivkumar Subramaniam, Varun Shashi Rao among others.
Positives
Meenakshi Sundareshwar delves deeper into the Tamilian culture and embraces the rawness tactfully. The bright costumes and sets are designed exquisitely enhancing the grandeur. The romantic songs have been composed with meaningful lyrics and the melody is soothing.
The tight and engaging screenplay secures the audience’s interest from the beginning. The film is adorned with creative dialogues with timed inclusion of Tamil to keep the feeling intact.
The serene calmness of Madurai with the frequent damp weather enhances the feel of the film. The green fields, the water bodies, large echoing temples and vast foggy tea estates add to the film’s aesthetics. It has a thorough balance of all kinds of moods from festive to calm and makes sure the audience synchronises with all.
The urban households demonstrating the equality of men and women deserves admiration. Meenakshi is often complimented for her confident and smart demeanour by her in-laws. She is never tormented for her fun and lively attitude or told to keep it in control.
Negatives
The mid-part lags a lot when it comes to depicting the emotional hurdles with fine detail. The inclusion of certain scenes isn’t at all necessary. The main characters seem to be at a loss of dialogues, repeating the same things multiple times.
It sometimes lags to the point where interactions between the main characters has no depth and watching other characters is deemed more enjoyable.
Some plots introduced to support the story are abruptly ignored due to the loss of time during the exaggeration. Several others don’t feel logical and are a bit immature. Thorough research is missing on scenes related to building technology and have no proper detailing. A deeper conceptualization would have made the plot stronger and better.
Worth it?
Skipping all of the negatives, Meenakshi Sundareshwar is a good, light-hearted movie. Malhotra and Dasani have done an exceptional job.
We are allowed to deeply dive into the cultures and traditions of Southern India and the beauty lies in its absolute rawness. The calm and serene landscapes of Madurai have been brilliantly captured and deserves appreciation. The film can be your respite if you want to relax or take a break from extensive crime thrillers and murder mysteries.
Also Read: Clutch (2021) review: Commendable effort on a promising genre for the future