How far does Maara go in reprising Charlie?
Maara is a recently launched Tamil movie. It was released via Amazon Prime in India on 8th January, as a remake of the much acclaimed Malayalam movie ‘Charlie’. Starring Madhavan and Shraddha Srinath in lead roles, does Maara really do justice in being called Charlie’s remake?
Charlie is one of the best movies of Malayalam actor Dulquer Salman and in fact, my favourite movie of all. So, seeing Maara’s trailer intrigued me quite a lot and I really had the question in mind — whether Maddy, the chocolate boy of K-Town can reprise Dulquer’s on-screen charisma and do justice to the movie.
It felt good to see that the makers decided to have some creative freedom in modifying the script, rightfully called a remake and not a copy. A scene by scene copy of Charlie would only draw more comparison and criticism. Though the main storyline remains the same, there have been significant deviations from the actual plot, especially the climax.
The film starts with a totally different scene, one of Tessa aka Paaru’s childhood. The child actor had actually done really well with her expressions. Then the movie shifts to Charlie’s plot itself, showing the wedding of Paaru’s brother. I really was disappointed seeing quite a handsome guy shown as Paaru’s groom to be. It took off the fun part that we had in Charlie. Also, Shraddha comes across as a normal girl next door without the eccentric looks that Tessa donned. Tessa’s eccentricity was what set the tone for the movie from the start in Charlie, which I greatly missed in Maara.
Also, it is noteworthy that Paaru’s profession is an archeological restorer instead of the graphic designer that Tessa was. Alexander Babu had done a really great job as the thief and it was a joy watching him on screen. One thing that was significantly disappointing were the looks of Charlie’s home. It had a very colourful and eccentric touch to it in the Malayalam version, especially the staircase to nowhere. It was significantly missing in Maara, where it is shown as just another dusty home, but with a view.
It would have been great if there was actually a voice-over of the story while showing the murals that Maara had created, it would have added depth to the scene. I also missed seeing Charlie’s scooter that was full of doodles.
One of the biggest strengths of Maara is its music. The background music and songs are as mesmerising as Charlie’s and the cinematography is pretty good too, though I would have loved better lighting in certain scenes.
I totally missed George, Charlie’s father. Charlie had depicted a very different and wonderful father-son relationship which was axed in Maara to suit the new plot. Mouli did a wonderful job reprising Nedumudi Venu’s role from Charlie. However, Kani’s character was quite changed, axing the details about her failed relationship, her father and retaining just an edge of the iceberg. However, the screen time of the conversation between Maara and Kani was pretty good and that is one place where I could feel Maara.
The place where Maara greatly misses out is in retaining the eccentricity of Charlie, Tessa and Kani. Their eccentricity was what increased the audience’s curiosity manifold. Madhavan has expressed a rather subtle acting here which only adds to the lowered eccentricity. The air of energy and charisma of Charlie is greatly missing. The dialogue delivery could have been more expressive in many scenes.
The only place where Maara wins is in connecting the first scene towards the end, when Paaru actually brings Meenakshi. The brilliant usage of the story from the start should definitely be appreciated, however I did not like how the climax actually turned out to be. Charlie had a very power packed climax retaining the curiousity of the audience till the end. There was charisma and eccentricity in the air which is totally missing in the kind of a cliched climax in Maara. Overall, I would say that Maara is a good one-time watch for its music and plot, though Charlie definitely remains unbeaten and more beautiful to watch.
