Maayavan Movie Review: A Well Played Crime/Sci-Fi Thriller

Maayavan is a very good attempt of a Sci-Fi and a crime thriller and is well-played by the director and the cast.

The director’s attempt to a novel story does work out.

Sundeep Kishan plays a cop named Kumaran – a disturbed cop, to be precise, and he carries off the role with much ease. His acting has improved a lot over the time.

He was also seen doing well in his recent movie Nenjil Thunivirunthal.

Kumaran encounters a crime scene when he chases a petty criminal and the gory hallucinations of the crime scene haunt him. He ends up taking psychiatric treatment. Lavanya Tripati plays the psychiatrist.

Later on, Kumaran encounters another crime scene – murder of a famous actress, and he draws similarities between this murder and the one he encountered earlier.

The suspect in this case is the make up man of the actress played by Mime Gopi. The clues of the two murders involve blood on the walls and cigarette butt.

We are lead to a conclusion that the murders are performed by a serial killer. And then we have Daniel Balaji (playing a self-help guru) enter the scene.

The movie starts off as a crime thriller and then unfolds as a Sci-Fi thriller.

The science that the movie talks about doesn’t sound too unrealistic as it is about brain mapping, cloning and immortality that are seriously pursued by companies like Google.

The screenplay holds the first half of the movie pretty tight. The movie moves through the happenings at the right pace and helps unfold the story.

The second half slightly lags in pace and the engagement factor when compared to the first half.

Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom fame Bagavathi Perumal appears as Sundeep’s assistant and does his job neatly. His role also has a nice scope in the movie.

The main antagonist in the movie is played by Jackie Shroff and he could have done better. We end up expecting so much from an iconic actor, but his role doesn’t deliver much!

Also in the second half, the screenplay loosens a bit and tones down the seriousness of the plot. However the pace picks up towards the climax.

For a mystery thriller keeping the audience in guessing mode is OK, but the movie does it a bit too much.

The screenplay could have been a bit faster at a few places. The love track between the cop and the psychiatrist could have been avoided.

The movie has a crisp run time of 2 hrs 7 minutes which is a plus for this kind of a movie.

The camera work by Gopi Amarnath deserves a mention. Music is done by Ghibran and the BG definitely goes well with the tone of the movie.

The movie is produced by Thirukumaran Entertainment and Auraa Cinemas.

Gopi Anand, the art director, deserves an applause for the lab sets that lives up to the standards!

Maayavan is a wonderful attempt by producer turned director CV Kumar. The movie is highly engaging and thrilling as a crime/Sci-Fi thriller; it is definitely worth the watch.