Maara Review: A Soulful Remake with the Potential to Overshadow the Original!

Maara Review: Remaking a popular film is a difficult task unless it is a commercial film, which does not require much effort. But the movies that acquire artistic values and are grounded to the native roots of their region of origin often ends up being ridiculous remakes, the Telugu versions of Premam and ’96, and the Tamil version of Bangalore Days, to quote some examples.

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Maara with R. Madhavan and Shraddha Srinath in the primary roles narrates the story of a restoration artist Paaru (Shraddha Srinath), in search of a carefree vagabond Maara (R. Madhavan) after finding a sketchbook and a picture of him while staying at his house. While most of the plot and screenplay is adapted from the original, director Dhilip Kumar tweaked it a little and made the Tamil version even more beautiful.

The performances in Maara were on-point for the most part. R. Madhavan did justice to the nomad character that was essayed by Dulquer Salmaan in the original. He was at his natural best, charming, and portrayed the role of Maara with ease. Shraddha Srinath’s innocent, spotless look and body language fitted her character well, and she knocked the ball-out-of-the-park from the beginning till the end. She carried the film with her enchanting looks, expressions, and her ability to perform is impeccable.

Also, the director hand-picked the supporting cast for the movie. Maara is loaded with an ensemble of performers. Be it M. S. Baskhar, Guru Soma Sundaram, and Kishore. Even though they appear for a relatively short screen time, they added positivity to the film. Veteran actor Mouli scores the best in the heartful climax, and his pure love for his lost-girlfriend was portrayed splendidly on-screen.

Ghibran’s songs and background score blended into the movie solidly as they did not serve as a disturbance to the ongoing narrative. Instead, they served as a backbone for the emotional saga. Dinesh Krishnan and Karthik Muthukumar’s cinematography is my biggest take from the film. The movie is visually rich, capturing the various colors and exquisite locations.

Debutant director Dhilip Kumar does his job flawlessly by telling an emotional story with Maara. His ability to beautifully capture those subtle emotions from a simple smile to a soulful climax with a mesmerizing background score maintained the simplicity of the characters and his narrative, remarkably.

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Overall, Maara is nothing short of visual poetry. The cast along with the story lives in their character and with a top-notch technical team, Dhilip Kumar delivers one of the finest remakes that has the potential to overshadow the original. Watch the film on Amazon Prime Video here.

Rating – 4/5 | Grade – A

Images via Amazon Prime Video