Raja Manthiri - An enjoyable rural comedy

Bharath Vijayakumar

Plot: It is about two brothers and their love lives that intersect.

Cast:

Kaali Venkat has been a dependable character/comic actor in his short career so far. He is the pivot in Raja Manthiri and he is extremely impressive. Most of the jokes revolve around his naiveness. We are expected to laugh at these jokes and at the same time  care for him. If we ended up mocking at him a lot would be lost for the film. But Kaali Venkat plays the timid elder brother with a sort of dignity that is quite rare these days.

Kalaiyarasan does a decent job. He does not bring anything new to the table in the comedy scenes but to his credit he looks confident and never dilutes the humour in any scene. Bala Saravanan lights up the screen whenever he gets a chance and is riotous in a couple of scenes.

The comedy works:

It has been a while since we had a rural comedy film of this sort that really clicked. Kalavani is one film that comes to mind. Most comedy films these days work more as assortment of comedy scenes rather than a comedy movie per se. It is as if the makers shortlist a few scenes that would bring in laughter and then try to have some sort of a story as a filler.

But Raja Manthiri is refreshing in that aspect. Though simple it does have a tale to tell and the comedy is a part of this tale and the characters in it.

There are few genuine laugh out loud moments and sufficient giggles throughout the film. The film does have its share of twists and accidental coincidences. But the best part is most of these never look contrived. The running gag involving the father and his misplaced emotion whenever the two brothers hug each other had me in splits each time. 

Bottomline:

Raja Manthiri is definitely one of the better comedies in the recent past and is thoroughly enjoyable. It reminds us that there is still place for good old-school humour in this day of memes, trolls and spoofs.

Rating: 3/5