Modha Rathri Movie Review:
The biggest grouse with Indian parenting is its giant leap from babying children to suddenly treating them like adults as the wedding bells begin ringing. This dereliction leads to treating marriage like a ‘responsibility camp’, hoping it will instantly transform someone into a family-ready person. This perhaps is the biggest curse of arranged marriages. Debut director Raja Karuppasamy’s Modha Rathri turns this very idea into a joy ride, as the nuptial night of an unlikely couple becomes a substitute for the date nights they never had.
Modha Rathri begins with a temple priest (Chetan) cursing Marudanayagam’s (Rishikanth) wedding to be doomed, following a tragedy within the temple premises that leaves him implicated and leads to a decline in its footfall. You wonder whether it is the priest’s curse that makes Maduranayagam the suitor to Muthuselvi (Anishma Anilkumar) in the first place, as the two have every reason not to start a life together. Arranged marriages operate in weird ways, bringing together two disparate individuals. However, love tries to jostle its way into this marriage made under strange circumstances.
The decision to take the proceedings in a slow and gradual manner helped the film greatly. Although debutant Raja Karuppasamy’s strategy of a shaky start puts you off in the first half, what followed that start was thoroughly enjoyable and bonkers. This writing routine continues in the second half too. It is commendable for Raja to deliver the second half too neatly, given that you are now wary of his purposeful dumbing-down technique that makes the dramatic surge look extraordinary.
The team of Modha Rathri can be proud of doing a great job with comedy, as almost every character fronts a fun moment and no one gets a raw deal. Be it the idiosyncrasies of the Chithappa character played by Bagavathi Perumal and his pairing with Abdool Lee’s character, a stretch involving the women from the families of both bride and groom, or the wedding bed manufacturers, seldom do you find lines or ideas that don’t work. Raja can also be credited for the soft-launch of the now non-existent comedy tracks. As the wedding drama and lead-up to the nuptial night demand your undistracted attention, a hilarious track involving a person and his friends is still equally enjoyable.
What was also a delight to watch was the neat setup and payoff structure in the midst of chaotic and dramatic scenes that unfold in the second half. Take the bed manufacturers and the three friends’ subplots; they take root during the initial minutes of the runtime. Introducing multiple subplots is always risky, as it may lead the writers to grasp at straws to give a hurried end to them when main plots grow tense. However, the makers have succeeded in overcoming this hurdle too. These subplots enjoy structures and complications, of course, in a lighter manner, of their own. Also, since Indian and Tamil weddings have a lot to do with prestige, status, class, and caste factors, Modha Rathri doesn’t shy away from messaging. The messaging against caste discrimination too takes the form of a setup and payoff. Thankfully, the message is pointed and not preachy.