Saravana Rajendran, the debutante director debuts with an emotional and influential love drama and one could not ask for a better debut than this. The story and dialogues for the film is written by Raju Murugan and one could feel the touch of the writer throughout the film. Somehow, Raju Murugan’s love for Maestro Ilaiyaraaja’s music seems to hold a dear place in every script that the director pens. The film mocks the Oscar winner AR Rahman and Harris Jayaraj to a little tolerable extent.
Jeeva (Madhampatty Rangaraj) runs a music cassette shop named Rajageetham in a village Poompaarai near Kodaikanal. As the name suggests Jeeva assists the young lads in the village to convey their love to their valentine through the music of Ilaiyaraaja, we are in the early 90’s now. One day a travelling circus pitches its tent in the village. Mehandi (Shweta Tripathi) a circus performer from Rajasthan is also a part of the circus. Jeeva falls for Mehandi and makes various attempts to impress her. Eventually they fall for each other.
Raajangham (Marimuthu) Jeeva’s dad and a casteist learns about the love of his son. The news does not have a good effect on him. Mehandi’s father on the other hand, is also against his daughter’s love for Jeeva. Facing hate from both the sides the couple elope the village with the assistance of Amaladass (Vela Ramamoorthy) a local pastor from the village and Jeeva’s close friend played by RJ Vigneshkanth. But however they get caught by Raajangham’s men. What happens to the couple after that is what makes the rest of the story.
Madhampatty Rangaraj, just shows a glimpse of an actor in him but does not succeed in leaving a long lasting effect in us. However, the actor has quite easily pulled off the variation between a 20 year old youth and a 40 year old man with ease.  Shweta Tripathi, is quite apt to play the helpless role of Mehandi but at crucial moments she masks a plain expression which leaves the audience puzzled. Vela Ramamoorthy, on a positive note gets a jovial character and is quite refreshing to see him in such a role after witnessing him in menacing roles in the recent past. There was only a little room in the script for RJ Vigneshkanth’s one liners which the actor has exploited to the maximum.
The musician of the film Sean Roldan deserves a special mention for the magic his hands has worked.
On the whole, once inside the theatre there is music in air especially Ilaiyaraaja’s and you are lured to the 90’s with the posters of Rajini and Kamal all over in the background of many scenes. Mehandi Circus is a feel good entertainer which will make you smile and put you through deep pain as the saying goes, ‘Pain is the side effect of true Love.’
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Visitor Rating: 5 Stars