The handsome Vinay Rai who took a sabbatical of sorts from Tamil film industry after Modhi Vilayadu is back in a comedy- action entertainer in Mirattal directed by Madhesh. Publicized as ‘thillu mullu begins’, Mirattal also has Santhanam, the current hot property of Kodambakkam, who has become an important staple of Tamil films these days.

Mirattal is about a dangerous dada who has his Achilles’ heel in his sister and the resultant events that unfold due to this. What happens when a young man breaks into this boundary forms the core of the story written and directed by Madhesh. Mirattal for the large part reminds the audience of Prabhu’s yesteryear Chinna Thambi, perhaps more strongly because of the veteran’s presence in the film albeit in a different role.

The premise is also not very contemporary and probably could have worked well at the turnstile a couple of decades back. All the same, the flick is fairly engaging thanks mainly to the passable comedic elements interspersed which sometimes appear silly and sometimes laughable.

Vinay Rai looks comfortable in his role and dishes out a neat performance. Sharmila Mandre looks pathetic for most parts and needs to work on almost all facets of acting. For Prabhu, this is just a breeze of a role which he has done innumerable times in his career and continues to come up trumps.

Santhanam as usual injects oxygen into this ordinary fare and whenever he appears on screen, he revitalizes the proceedings with his wisecracks and body language. He is also ably supported by Pandiarajan and Kanja Karuppu in this department. In fact Mirattal boasts of a huge supporting cast in Prabhu, Mansoor Ali Khan, Bossky, Yuvarani, Uma Padmanabhan and Pradeep Rawat.   

Director’s touch with comedy manifests itself in humorous dialogues like “50 kg Taj Mahal illa 300 kg Nayakkar Mahal” and “Ini Thamizh Naattukku foreign maappilay venaam, Thamizh Naattu maappillaye porum” and in most cases they are mouthed by -no marks for guessing- Santhanam.  Vinay Rai also provides the perfect foil for Santhanam and Pandiarajan.

Praveen Mani’s music is just about ordinary and the pick of the album is Kalla Parvai. That aside, the RR is loud and thumping and could have been toned down. Kannan’s camera work is just about ordinary and in many places, the jumpy editing should have been avoided and the continuity aspect taken care of. The overseas locales that were much advertised do not make much a mark.

The scene where Santhanam gets sloshed and creates a commotion is unnecessarily lengthy and irksome.  There are quite a few gaffes in the film like the heroine asking her friend to call the emergency number 911 in UK, the mysterious bus that follows the lead pair’s car in the song on and off, to name a few. And also the villain giving the cellphone to heroine in climax and the hero trying to locate the heroine in a beaten to death trick are surely amusing.

Mirattal is just another commercial fare with comedy dominating for most parts and engages the audience in a very average manner.

Verdict: Passable masala