Meaghamann (Captain of the Ship) - Runs a tight ship (well, almost)!

Undercover cop stories in Tamil with a taut screenplay are few and far between, as it demands a lot of detailing in the script in addition to an undercurrent with an innate tension to be built up for the final showdown. Even if there are minor logical loopholes or a bit complicated for the common viewers, it would be dismissed mercilessly by today’s ‘pop-cultured’ audiences. In short, its quite a sensitive subject that demands the director to walk a tightrope. In the past, I can remember only ‘Kuruthipunal’, the kamal-starrer, tasting limited success due to it’s content that was far ahead of it’s times. But if you ask me to drop another name that falls under such genre and made with equal panache, then I can only borrow names from Hollywood. I wont be counting movies featuring stars like Vijay or Ajith or Arjun or Kamal himself (in his early-day movies like ‘Kaaki Sattai’) where the undercover element would be merely used as a trope in order to substantiate the largesse tagged along with their roles.

Director Magizh Thirumeni’s ‘Meaghamann’ too is an undercover cop’s story that takes itself pretty seriously and walks steadfast with it characters painted in all black. Arul (Arya) is an undercover agent who works for a drug cartel in Goa with the sole aim of foiling their business which is controlled by Jothi (Ashutosh Rana). Due to the age-old bureaucracy that is synonymous within the government hierarchy, he gets trapped and his best buddy (Ramana, also as an undercover agent) gets tortured and butchered. Obviously, he comes out with flying colors foiling the antagonist’s evil plans.

The portions that work for this movie are the ones where Arya patiently strikes the enemy with a poignant ease without much fuss. The blazing gun fight and the extravagant action scenes where he takes on a number of goons. Even though they seem to like merely add-ons to the main movie, they were shot well and gelled with the proceedings. The portions that were alien to the movie were the ones with Hansika where it looked like it was taken from a cliched rom-com flick. It was a clear addition to satiate the commercial needs. Others in the cast like Anupama Kumar as a smart IAS officer who craves to pull off the undercover operation was fine. The villain, Ashutosh Rana looked like a reservoir of cool and came across as a sophisticated baddie.

Still the movie leaves a lot to be desired in terms of tighter packaging which was key to success for the director’s previous flick, ‘Thadayara Thaaka’. Arya looked tough and stylish, but should he maintain a grim face throughout? Can’t he sport a smile even during lighter moments? Also there were far too many goons to remember - the one with an ugly face, the other one with a grouchy smile and the grim-faced one. So everyone were serious about their roles, literally, but there was no life in either of them.

Overall, this movie is a one-time watch and definitely not a disappointment as it has logic and a decent narrative outweighing its minor flaws. These smart action thrillers are currently trending and may do the rounds for the next couple of years until something ground-breaking comes from a newbie which would change the scene as to what we pursue as an action thriller - synonymous to what happened to the rural madurai based flicks post ‘Paruthiveeran’ and ‘Subramaniapuram’.

Verdict: One time watch!

Rating: 2.5 / 5