In the recent times actress Aishwarya Rajesh has been fussy when it comes to inking her signature for a project. The actress has been sieving out projects to be only part of ventures that has quality content and that is how the medical crime thriller Mei caught the attention of Tamil audience. Also, the hero Nicky Sundaram who hails from a reputed TVS family has some part to do with the publicity that the entertainer enjoyed. Mei falls in to the line of medical thrillers of Kollywood like E, Yennai Arindhaal, and Kaaki Sattai which laid light on how the innocent people are exploited and murdered for their organs. Story teller S. A. Bhaskaran has tried to fabricate a thriller script on the same theme, in which he has partially succeeded as well. But unlike the other medical thrillers that have hit the screens, Mei is based on a real incident which took place in Tamil Nadu.
The film opens with a girl being abducted at late night. Her father (Charlie) files a complaint in the local police station to inspector Karunakaran (Ajay Ghosh), a corrupt police official. As Karunakaran is not able to carry out the investigation in an effective way, the case gets wedged at a same point without any progress. Disappointed with the lack of progress in the case the higher officials appoint an honest cop Muthu (Kishore) to take over the case.
Meanwhile, Abinav Chandran (Nicky Sundaram) an aspiring doctor who has just returned from United States to Tamil Nadu bumps in to Uthra (Aishwarya Rajesh) a medical representative and falls in love with her. Trouble arises when the police go after Abinav Chandran after a medical racket accuses the doctor to be the reason behind the death of a medical shop employee. Now Abinav Chandran must prove his innocence in order to get out of the case. So seeks the help of Uthra to discover who is behind this medical mafia to prove his innocence. When he begins to dig for answers he discovers that powerful individuals who will go to any extent to safe guard themselves from getting dragged in to case are involved in the crime. How Abinav Chandran proves his innocence and how Muthu solves the missing case of a girl along with the medical crime case is what makes the rest of the film.
Director S. A. Bhaskaran and writer Sentha Murugesan have done their research well before opting to craft a story on the medical crime that is happening across the globe. But when the medical crime drama turns in to a thriller, is precisely the part where the writing has botched to give life to the script. Though the duo has implanted a couple of noteworthy twists in the plot, the film does not make an impact as a whole medical crime thriller drama.
The NRI character in the flick seems to be written just in order to suit the image and body language of the debutant actor Abinav Chandran and he has played the role well. But the actor has a long way to go to get to the image of a lead hero in Tamil cinema. Perhaps we will have to wait to see the actor in roles other than the INR role. Actress Aishwarya Rajesh fights hard to make the thriller in to a racy and staid one but such efforts in the writing and filming department would have made her task much easier. The rest of the cast including veteran actor Charlie and Kishore has given a neat performance.
On the technical end, cinematographer Mohan has filmed the thriller drama in the best way possible while musicians Anil and Prithvi Kumar add strength to the entertainer with their background and musical score.
Director S. A. Baskaran’s decision to go for a much less explored theme of Kollywood is good. But the problem lies with the mediocre making which the Tamil cinema industry of late has taken a fancy for. Though the flick has its ups and downs, it toils hard to engage the audience due to its predictability factor in the second half and also with the lack of the main ingredient ‘Whodunit element’ which is one of the key factors for a thriller to get the audience invested in.
On the whole, a better screenplay with trifling changes in the plot might have made Mei as one of the best medical crime thrillers of Kollywood, of course along with a better making.
