After being in the cans for too long, Mayilu directed by M Jeevan finally sees the daylight. Produced by Moserbaer, the movie stars Shri and Shammu in the lead roles. Jeevan, apart from directing the movie has helmed the camera and penned the story and the lyrics.

Shammu plays Mayilu and Shri plays her lover, Chellapandi. Chellapandi, a communist, all of a sudden turns spiritual and is made the priest of his village. Mayilu, who loves Chellapandi, weaves a plot to elope with him. Whether she succeeds in this attempt and what happens to her life is what Mayilu is all about.

The director tries to convey the dark side of superstitious beliefs, but doesn’t do it with perfection. The character, Chellapandi is said to be a communist, but enough isn’t told to support it. Similarly, his sudden attraction towards God too isn’t convincing. However, the blame must also be shared by the lead actor, Shri, who has tried to be subtle and has ended up emotionless.

Shammu starts off well, but as the film progresses, monotony builds up in her acting and modulation. On the whole, her overall performance appears unnatural. Vidharth doesn't show up very often, and it appears as though he has done whatever he was instructed to do. However, when compared to his previous performance, it feels like he has been under exploited. Kanja Karuppu does well in breaking the monotony in the story with few of his witty acts, but his character is completely unnecessary. That said, most of the characters and sequences in the film are irrelevant. It looks blatantly obvious that the director has added those to make the film long enough to be considered as a feature film. The director even sidesteps way too much from the main story line to create enough scope for the remaining characters.

The music is dated and ordinary to be Isaignani Ilayaraja's. But, one scene where the music compliments the sequence was the one before the interval block, where the protagonist gets possessed with the spirit of a deceased priest.

Cinematography by Jeevan is nothing out-of-the-box, but the necessity is met. However, it is not hard to notice the insect that is on the lens. The other sequence that should have been avoided is the glamour sequence. It is neither entertaining nor a treat for the hormones, rather it is extremely disturbing.

In a nutshell, the film is a sad and tragic one and has wailing sequences in regular intervals. There are possibilities of people concluding that the director is trying to impose his ideologies into the heads of the audiences, which might not be acceptable to many. But, the good thing for Jeevan is that he hasn’t made most of his points clear.

Verdict: This Mayilu is not that pretty...