There’s no moral superiority in that ascetic laughter of his-which probably can be thought of as even the desperate attempt of an unhappy man to be happy, chained as he is to his lifelong quest. I quite enjoyed that Madhavan plays this character without a sanctimonious flavour-and more importantly, in a way that shows that Maara isn’t above vulnerability. This way, there’s a reason for why Maara is the way he is, why he can’t afford to stay at one place for too long. I loved this touch because shorn of it, Maara, the character, could have felt idealistic and unrelatable-which would have gone against the point of the film itself. He’s merely a tool, a person who breezes through life hoping to repay the extraordinary help that Vellaiyan has done to him. I got the sense that Maara doesn’t think of himself as a hero or a saviour, even if those around him seem to believe that. The implication is that no one story is necessarily more important than another. This is why there are multiple characters with their own short stories, including those of Selvi (Abhirami), the sex worker, and Kani (Sshivada), the guilt-ridden doctor. The film is a reinforcement of the power of stories, of the stories each of our lives are. There’s another quest for a soulmate in this film, one undertaken by Vellaiyan (a wonderful Mouli), one that is later taken over by Maara. This is pretty much the story of this film as well, as Paaru (Shraddha Srinath) grows up to find herself in a similar quest for her soul, well, soulmate, in Maara (Madhavan). Shortly, you see little Paaru in rapt attention, as a nun narrates to her the story of a soldier who’s travelling across seas and jungles in a quest to find his soul. If you didn’t know that Maara is the remake of the Malayalam film, Charlie, the opening shot of fireflies fluttering about is a strong hint of the magic contained within the universe of this film.
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