Minmini Review - A Watchable Light-Hearted Breezy Flick!

Ashwin Ram

Minmini is a feel-good drama directed by Sillukarupatti fame Halitha Shameem. Starring Esther Anil, Pravin Kishore and Gaurav Kalai in the lead roles. A.R.Rahman’s daughter Khatija Rahman has scored the music.

Premise:

Gaurav Kalai is everyone’s favourite in school. He dies unexpectedly in a bus accident, Esther Anil and Pravin Kishore are directly impacted by the grim incident and part ways. What happens when they meet each other after 8 years forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

The movie is fascinatingly shot with a gap of 8 years splitting the two halves and there is a logical reasoning to it. Such great effort has paid off, helping the natural physical transformation of the artists for the timeline jump. Unfortunately the inventive idea affects the writing pattern and making style, the important moments taking place inside a school premises in the first half feels amateurish. The arc seems to be a convincing one, but the engagement isn’t there. Even the major bus accident scene lacks the believability factor. However the incident’s emotional impact on the two lead actors are conveyed decently, which paves way for the whole second half. Not just a timeline shift in the later half, it is situated entirely in the North-East. Truly a surreal experience viewing those amusing terrains on the big-screen. With respect to the story, it gets better with some breezy sequences here and there. But then the core-plot could have been handled in a more refreshing new-age manner, rather than taking the melodramatic route. Because of overly dragging the reveal of the writing high-point till the climax, the film never provides that heavy impact at the end which was intended in the pre-interval portions. Also, the flow becomes extremely predictable after a point and nothing beyond happens. The director displays some vivid flash-cuts referencing her debut movie ‘Poovarasan Pee Pee’, but there is no justification to it.

Performances:

Neat performances from all three leads who are relatively fresh faces. Esther Anil excels the other two, she carried innocence so elegantly till the very end. Mature performance from Pravin Kishore, he had to convey plenty of his traumatic emotional baggage through expressions, and he did it very convincingly. Gaurav Kalai as the child artist was convincing and him being the central character of the film, most of his scenes in the initial stages fell flat.

Technicalities:

Kudos to the entire team for being with utmost conviction and going all the way to tough places like Leh, Ladakh, etc and bringing the beauty of it on-screen, not just for a scene or two, but an entire half is shot at high altitude. Manoj Paramahamsa’s camera work is at its best. Debutante Khatija Rahman’s background score is delightful throughout, soothing music adapting to the visuals. Editing could have been better in both the halves, in the first certain scenes had the scope to be chopped due to the repetitive factor and the latter had some continuity issues which could have been corrected in the edit table.

Bottomline

The film has its heart at the right place, the mesmerizing visuals are the main highlight. The predictability in the storytelling and the kiddish first half are the shortcomings, thankfully the decent second half acts as the saviour.

Rating - 2.75/ 5