Maanagaram: Arguably One Of The Best Portrayal Of A Metropolitan City On The Silver Screen
When someone says the word Metropolitan City, what kind of thoughts would come up in your mind? The word Metropolitan City reminds me of the vibrant culture and the different kinds of people I meet daily. Maanagaram is a Tamil movie that released in the year 2017. The movie is directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. This was his debut directorial venture. In this blog, I will be telling you the reasons why Maanagaram is arguably one of the best portrayal of a metropolitan city on the silver screen. This blog has many spoilers ahead.
The Backdrop And The Characters Of The Movie
The story has been set in the city of Chennai. The characters names are not revealed till the end of the movie. So I would be addressing the characters by their leading names. The movie has five leading characters. Sri plays the role of a villager who is educated. He comes to Chennai searching for better employment opportunities. Sundeep Kishan plays the role of a rugged lover. Regina Cassandra plays the role of an HR Officer at the BPO where Sri comes looking for a job. She is also the love interest of Sundeep Kishan. Munshikanth plays the role of “Winnings” a comic gangster. Madhusudhan Rao plays the role of PK Pandian, a ruthless gangster in the city. The story revolves around the lives of four people who are new to the city and an incident that brings all of them to the same page.
Why Maanagaram Is Arguably One Of The Best Portrayal Of A Metropolitan City On The Silver Screen?
I have already introduced you to the backdrop and the characters of the movie. Now I would be using some of the scenes from the movie to reason Why Maanagaram Is Arguably One Of The Best Portrayal Of A Metropolitan City On The Silver Screen.
The Caution Warning To Any One New To The City
People from rural areas move to a city to improve their lifestyle or earn more for their family. These people tend to move to cities where one of their relatives or their friends from the same village has already been settled in these cities. They would go meet them to seek advice on surviving in the city. The very first piece of advice given is the city isn’t like the village.
On a similar note, Charlie is a taxi driver in the village. He heads to Chennai for a better living standard. His son is ill and needs a lot of money for medical treatment.
Charlie meets one of his friends from the village, Vinod Sagar to seek some advice on surviving and earning a livelihood in this city as a taxi driver. Vinod is also a taxi driver. They meet at a bar. The first thing that Vinod says is that driving in the city is not like driving in our village. He also mentions that people in the city are not nice.
This is quite a common experience in the lives of those who head to the city from the village. Their first impression of a city is created by this cautionary statement by their relatives or friends isn’t always true. One must always remember that the quote “First Impression Is The Best Impression” is not always true.
Never Judge The City Just Because Some People Are Bad To You
Doe Zantamata, a popular author once said “One bad apple may spoil the bunch, but people aren’t apples. Don’t let the poor choices of one person spoil the way you feel about all the people. You’ll soon find out that there are a lot of awesome apples out there.”. I have heard a lot of stories from people from other places who stay in the city and are cheated or treated badly by someone. They feel so sad and they judge the people of the city to be bad.
Sri’s degree certificates, mobile phone and money were looted by a set of robbers. He was beaten black and blue by them. This creates a fanning hatred in the heart towards the city and its people.
Charlie on the other hand is a new cabbie in the city. He doesn’t know the routes in the city. He works as a cab driver for the company where Sri has recently been hired. Sri wents out his anger on the city and its people. On the other hand, Charlie keeps an optimistic view of the city and its people.
During the conversation between Charlie and Siri, Charlie says that Sri should not judge the city just because some people are bad. The city provides a livelihood to many people.
Humanity Still Exists In The City
There has always been a question of whether humanity exists in the hearts of those who live in the cities. Where one set of people say it exists and some say no. On a very personal, I believe it exists. I have seen people helping an ambulance reach its destination on time by clearing the traffic. I have seen people helping each other at times of critical crisis without expecting anything in return.
At the start of the movie, the character Winnings (played by Munshikanth) is shown as a person who wants to earn a lot of money by hook or crook. He joins a set of gangsters and kidnaps the son of the dreaded gangster PK Pandian. They demand a sum of Rs 10 million from PK Pandian to get his son. PK Pandian’s son escapes from the clutches of the kidnappers and even Munshikanth leaves the gang fearing his life. Eventually, both of them get caught by the corrupt cop S. Neelakandan. He hatches a plan to get the ransom money of Rs 10 million from PK Pandian by using Munshikanth. In a fierce exchange of gunfire, PK Pandian gets wounded. Munshikanth drives PK Pandian and his son to the hospital. In the end, Munshikanth walks away from the car. Suddenly, PK Pandian opens the door and throws the bag with the ransom money. Munshikanth looks at the money and smiles. He just continues walking. This scene witnesses the transformation of a character who once wanted to earn money by hook or crook decides to leave the ransom money and found happiness & satisfaction in helping someone in need.
The other two gangsters who were working with Munshikanth head searching for Munshikanth and PK Pandian’s soon. Charlie drives a rental car from PK Pandian’s company. These gangsters thought Charlie is a member of PK Pandian’s gang and is spying on them. They keep Charlie as a hostage and start beating him mercilessly. Sri steps up to save him. He initially decides to surrender on Charlie’s behalf to the gangsters. Later he ends up fighting them for looting him the previous night and for beating up charlie. Later Charlie is taken to the hospital by Sri with the help of Sundeep Kishan.
My Connect With Maanagaram
I have been living in Bangalore since 2000. During the first three years of my academic tenure at MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, I used to travel to college on the BMTC bus. Daily, I used to travel nearly 40Km a day on the bus. While travelling on the BMTC Bus, I used to meet a lot of people from different parts of the country and state who have migrated to Bangalore for earning their livelihood. The best part was listening to their stories and their perspective on the city of Bangalore.
Let me tell you a little story from my life experience. It was the night bus. I was travelling from the Kempegowda Bus Station to my home on the old airport road. During this journey, I got to meet two techies from Tamil Nadu who were working in an IT firm in Bangalore. One of them began to narrate about their terrible experience with the BMTC when the conductor took the money for the tickets and did not hand over the bus tickets to them. The checking inspector caught them without tickets and penalised them. They said that they do not like the BMTC conductors after this incident. I told them that I have seen both kinds of BMTC bus conductors, the good ones and the bad ones. I told them not to judge all the BMTC bus conductors just because some of them are bad.
Conclusion
If you enjoy, urban thriller movies with a unique screenplay then Maanagaram is one such that you should not miss. The movie is streaming on Amazon Prime with English Subtitles. You can also watch the Telugu dubbed version of this movie with English Subtitles streaming on YouTube.
