Manmadan Ambu

<p>Ambujakshi alias “Nisha”, a film actress, arrives in Europe to spend the vacations with her friend Deepa, a divorcee, and her two children Viswanath alias Vish and Bhagirathi alias Bags. While going in a taxi, Ambu recalls an early incident regarding her ex-boyfriend Madhanagopal, a wealthy entrepreneur. Three years ago, she was shooting for a film with actor in a bright park, and Madhan was suspicious of her relationship with the actor. While returning, he let Ambu drive his new car. Madhan insisted that Ambu stop acting but she refused, leading to an argument that almost caused their car to crash into a smaller white car. Unable to bear Madhan’s jealousy, Ambu broke her relationship with Madhan and walked away. Madhan now suspects that Ambu may be having a relationship with her colleagues in the film industry. To end that, he hires detective Major Raja Mannar to follow her when she goes on a cruise for a vacation in . Mannar accepts, as he needs money to pay the hospital bills of his friend Rajan, who is diagnosed with cancer, and who is being taken care of by his wife Mallika. Contrary to Madhan’s suspicions, Ambu is loyal and virtuous; when Mannar reports this, Madhan refuses to pay him as his suspicions were unfounded. Disappointed, Mannar, to save his dying friend Rajan, fabricates a story and tells Madhan that she is having a secret affair during her trip. In the process, he introduces himself as a manager of a security company to Ambu, Deepa, and Deepa’s children, and becomes close to the group. While getting closer to Ambu, Mannar says to Madhan that Ambu’s intentions are good, but the man she was being seen with, is of poor character. Madhan does not like what he hears and eventually breaks up with Ambu. In the background, Madhan’s mother Indira, who has never liked Ambu, calls her brother to inform that Madhan has broken up with Ambu and that they should get his daughter Sunanda married to Madhan as agreed previously. While recollecting his past as an to Ambu, Mannar reveals that he lost his wife Juliet three years ago in a car accident. Ambu realizes to her horror that the accident was caused by her during the argument with Madhan. Both of them decide to confront each other with the truth, but Ambu misidentifies Kunju Kurup as Madhan’s detective, slaps him, and tells him that she loves Mannar. Meanwhile, Rajan undergoes an operation immediately after the chemotherapy, in an attempt to keep him alive. To make things worse, Madhan announces that he will visit them in person at . Ultimately, Mannar and Deepa (who now knows that Mannar is Madhan’s actual spy) stage a plan with the help of Kurup and his wife Manju to deceive Madhan for the final break-up with Ambu. Madhan arrives at the place and various mix-ups and misunderstandings take place among the characters. Finally, Madhan realises that Ambu has fallen in love with Mannar and accepts it with a heavy heart. At the same time, Rajan recovers from cancer. Mallika calls and tells Mannar this with tears and thanks him. The film ends as everyone returns to India on the cruise, with Madhan and Deepa starting a relationship and Mannar and Ambu proposing their love. After , Kamal Haasan opted against reviving his home production , and signed on for a film produced by . While the film went through months of pre-production, , in December 2009, and then , in February 2010, were added to the project, with being chosen as the director. Though early indications suggested the film would be titled or , for which poet Vishali Kannadasan, daughter of lyricist , was even approached to play a pivotal role. The launch ceremony of the film, held on 3 June 2010, confirmed the title as . During the launch, Kamal Haasan said that prior to the shoot were performed. Haasan, along with , wrote the film’s screenplay and dialogues. The film also marked the debut of cinematographer in Tamil cinema. Kamal Haasan worked again with director K. S. Ravikumar for the fifth and last time after a two-year break following these previous collaborations in (1996), (2000), (2002) and (2008). Ramji, who worked as a for , also played Madhavan’s father. Film shoots were subsequently held aboard a from , and the film was shot across various regions of Europe including Paris and in France, in Spain, and and in Italy. Parts of the film were also shot in in including scenes with French actress , who was selected amongst 15 women; remaining portions were completed in . 90 per cent of the film was shot abroad, and 40 per cent was on the ship . French crew also worked in the film. The film’s music was scored by and all the lyrics were written by Kamal Haasan himself. The soundtrack album was launched at a promotional event held on 20 November 2010, at Singapore Expo, Singapore, where the film’s cast and crew and other celebrities attended the event. The controversial song “Kamal Kavidhai”, had come under criticism due to lines about a woman’s desire and for references to Hindu deities like and Sri Varalakshmi. Therefore, producer opted to remove it from the film. The album received positive reviews from music critics. C. Karthik from Behindwoods rated the album 3/5 and quoted “Overall, DSP can be very proud of this album as he has deviated from his normal offerings. A westernised folk song, jazz, melodies, a poem and a kuthu…an album could not ask for more variety and DSP has delivered. Though the music gets a little heavy at times, he has Kamal, with his voice and lyrics, to save him. The new experiments shows his maturity and his intention for being innovative. With the movie’s release soon, the songs must be playing non-stop on air.” Pavithra Srinivasan of also gave the album 3/5 saying that “DSP has a reputation for sticking with his regulation format of tunes and here too, you can see it pop up at certain places but there’s also a departure from the usual, mostly an influence of Haasan in both lyrics and music. Whatever the reason, the end result is an album that provides you a treat. Go for it.” Indiaglitz said “Overall, this film must have been a different experience for DSP who all along dwelled in fast rhythmic world. The whole album has an up market western jazz feel except for that one song. For a story that happens in Europe, DSP has done it right, we guess.” was released on 23 December 2010. bought the satellite rights. grossed (US$550,000) in alone over a period of 4 weeks. In UK, it grossed first week $77,360 and in Malaysia $653,942. declared the film as “average”. received mixed reviews from critics. gave 3 out of 5, claiming that ” has all the elements of a good entertainer, but still something seems to be lacking. However, overall, the film is entertaining and enjoyable”. gave 2.5 out of 5 and stated “Overall, is an entertainer but in parts”, while wrote ” does impress but it lacks the punch to captivate the audiences”. gave 3 out of 5, claiming that ” defies characterization as either a romantic film or a comedy, largely because the two don’t mix”. gave 3 out of 5, said, ” is consistently engaging. Cleverly written and sharply cast, it is a film that delivers hearty laughs. It is one of those rare Tamil films that’s funny and smart at the same time”. said, ” may not be a or , but a perfect holiday entertainer with stamp all over it.” Malathi Rangarajan of stated that, “Sprinkled with humour, joy, love, sadness and sentiment with an undercurrent of jealousy running through it, MMA [ ] is a cocktail of emotions – tasty, but at times queer!”. resident editor T.S. Sudhir wrote, “Don’t go expecting a from the Kamal- combo, for you will be disappointed. MMA has starting trouble and one hour into the film, you are desperately waiting for the comic fireworks to start, given that the film has been marketed as a laugh riot. The riot, when it happens post the interval, leaves you with a feeling of being shortchanged.” He further mentioned, “The problem with MMA is as much with Kamal as with the audience for you expect nothing short of brilliance from this Master of all trades. In MMA, Kamal has shot the Cupid’s arrow (which is what Manmadhan Ambu means) rather lazily. Go without expecting a world record in archery!” wrote “the first half moves at a brisk pace, with some genuine fun moments, and crackling one-liners, all with the promise of more good times to come. But the second half fizzles out totally as the script nosedives never to recover”, and also the movie plot takes its inspiration from the 1948 American comedy, . The Telugu dubbed version of the film, which was distributed by , also opened to mixed reviews from critics. Jeevi from gave the film 3 out of 5 rating and stated “The comedy in this film is predictable at times and fresh in certain scenes. The plus points of the movie are main leads and comedy quotient. On the flipside, the characters and narration becomes confusing towards end and the editing should have been smoother. On a whole, is a decent comedy.” Y. Sunita Chowdary from said ” does have a plot but the character development, narration and the pace makes it a very restless and a tedious watch.” and was critical about the dubbing. She finally concluded by stating that “The film could have drawn a little wider audience than the filmmakers intended, if the length would have been a half an hour shorter.” Though the cleared the song penned by Kamal himself, it courted controversy after right wing groups protested against the lyrics of song as obscene. The song was later removed from the film.</p>