12 Nov 2021

#426 Movie Review : Meenakshi Sundareshwar

  

Meenakshi Sundereshwar

Source : Google Images

 

Review:


As the trailer suggests, this movie is about arranged marriage which has been set up in Madurai. The narrator, in the beginning, describes the possibility of this marriage is majorly due to two reasons; divine intervention and Rajanikanth. The first reason becomes apparent within the first 15 minutes of the movie whereas the second reason becomes clear only at the end of the movie. Their marriage is performed in the temple of Meenakshi Sundereshwar, Madurai which forms the basis of the success of their marriage, just like any other arranged marriage which starts with such a belief. Meenakshi’s grandfather believes that Lord Shiva as Sundereshwar has arrived at his house to ask for the company of Goddess Parvati as Meenakshi.

         

          It’s Sundereshwar’s desire to work independently by chasing his dreams, as well as his honesty, are some of the characteristics which attract Meenakshi whereas it’s Meenakshi’s confidence of bringing a significant change in the organization she would be working that Sundereshwar admires the most. Sundereshwar is very passionate about coding for which he wants to join a reputed MNC and is not at all interested to get involved in his family business of Saree. On their wedding night, Sunder gets the mail about the interview of a company for which he starts preparing by promising Meenakshi to spend some hours with her before leaving for the interview.

 

He eventually gets selected and prepares to leave for Bengaluru where he’s expected to do a 6-months-long-internship before he is offered a position in the company. Their relationship takes a long-distance form which throws a lot of curveballs towards them. Meenakshi, over time, gels well with different members of the family, and everyone is impressed by her intelligence and charm.

 

Sunder, on joining the company in Bengaluru, finds that the company hires bachelors who can dedicate more time to the work without getting distracted. He hides his marital status and tries to get acquainted with this new culture. At the same time, he also keeps searching about ways to keep their long-distant-relationship active and alive. Meanwhile, Meenakshi has also joined a small firm in Madurai to keep herself engaged.

 

In the company, the interns are expected to design an app and the best design will be awarded and that intern will be offered a permanent position in the company. Sunder gets busy in executing his idea in the app and lack of communication, distance, etc. become factors for the misunderstandings between them. Meenakshi decides to take a break from the house of in-laws and accepts the offer of one of her college friends to help him with the finance of his family business.

 

          On the day of the final presentation, one of Sunder’s roommates creates chaos. He sends a message from Sunder’s mobile to Meenakshi asking her to meet him at his office and he reveals Sunder’s marital status to the CEO of the company. Just a few minutes before the turn of Sunder for the presentation, he receives a message from Meenakshi who is waiting for him in the cafeteria of the office which infuriates Sunder. He meets Meenakshi and loses his temper while explaining his situation. Seniors and CEO also arrive at that place while searching for Sunder and ask him to get back to the conference room for his presentation. Meenakshi leaves the place by being offended.

 

          Sunder overhears his senior’s interaction with his roommate and comes to know that he’s the culprit behind all those chaos. He enters the conference room on being called and presents his app which is to test the emotion of the person. He has created this to understand his wife better while being in a long distant relationship. At the end of his presentation, he states that he won’t be working in that company in the future as he’s married and he has hidden his marital status throughout.

 

          On returning to home, Sunder becomes saddened by Meenakshi’s absence in his home. He resolves to bring her back and visit his in-law’s house who say that Meenakshi has been away without informing them. Sunder continues searching Meenakshi everywhere he can but he fails. The poster of Rajnikant on a wall ignites his hope of finding Meenakshi in the movie hall as he recalls from their first conversation that Meenakshi never misses any first-day-first-show of Rajnikant. Eventually, he finds Meenakshi in the movie hall enjoying the movie of Ranikant and their love story kicks start from where it has left.  

 

My opinion:

 

Dangal girl Sanya Malhotra has portrayed Meenakshi to be a confident and intelligent girl just like her character as Renee in the movie Badhai

Ho. This is the third movie of her that I finished watching and I really admire her acting style which comes out to be so natural. Not to forget, Abhimanyu Dassani as Sundershwar has performed equally well in this movie. Sundershwar is that shy, ambitious, quiet, and obedient guy whom every parent pushes for an arranged marriage.

 

This movie revolves around the life of a newly married couple where Sundershwar juggles between his ambition to perform his best in his IT career lest he should look after his family business and long-distance relationship. In an arranged marriage, a long-distance relationship at the beginning of the marriage becomes tough when they've not given much time to understand each other. In such cases, it's obvious to have arguments and misunderstandings which the gadgets make even worse. This motivates him to design an app, as a task of the internship, to understand his wife better.

 

For me, it's a one-time watch movie with a relatable script. I wish I could understand those Tamil lines in the middle of Hindi dialogues. It would have made the regional influence of the movie more understandable for me. I personally feel that the storyline could have been much stronger to render a lasting impact but the songs have been very suitable for different situations.

 

My rating goes 4.4/5, the best part is that this movie ends on a happy note, thereby making my weekend-watching more enjoyable and satisfying because I believe in happy endings. 

#moviereview #MeenakshiSundareshwar #Netflix #SanyaMalhotra

#AbhimanyuDassani


 ©Swati Sarangi

13.11.2021