Mathagam Review: The Tamil crime thriller series has been directed by Prasad Murugesan and stars Atharvaa in the role of a police officer and Manikandan as a most-wanted criminal in lead roles. The show also includes a supporting cast of Nikila Vimal, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Ilavarasu, Vadivukarasi, Dilnaz Irani and Moonar Ramesh.
With cinematography by Edwin Sakay and action choreography by Dhilip Subbarayan, the series follows a storyline set in Chennai written by Murugesan. The web series consists of five episodes set at a run-time of forty minutes each.
Mathagam Review
The series revolves around Ashwath (Atharvaa), a high-ranking police officer who decides to go after Padalam Sekar (K Manikandan), also known as the Whale, who is assembling Chennai’s entire underworld for a party with an agenda that remains a major mystery. Ashwath runs the operation with approval from police commissioner Sayanthika (Dilnaz Irani). On the personal life front, the police officer is also dealing with a complicated family situation as his wife, Vaideghi (Nikhila Vimal), is going through post-partum depression.
The five episodes of the show follow a cat-and-mouse chase between Ashwath and Padalam. While trying to nab the underworld gangsters through covert operations and other means, Ashwath is also constantly faced with the reality of the level of corruption in the police system and also the nexus between politicians and gangsters.
Building a good crime thriller narrative is tough, given that it has to hook you into the story completely. In the case of this series, while the story at hand has potential, over the course of five episodes, the plot takes a while to grow on you. The slow-burner approach doesn’t particularly work for all stories, and it certainly doesn’t work in this case.
A strange creative choice that the director makes in the case of Mathagam is how he goes on to introduce some supporting characters of the story right till the end of the season. Each gangster that is invited to Padalam’s party gets a unique name. While this delays the main story, some of these supporting characters certainly make an impact, especially with their quirky names of Coin Siva, Ice Box and Mava Sait. Not only do we learn about their exploits but also other characteristics, such as one of them is also a singer.
Murugesan’s screenplay tries hard to prepare an engaging plot by revealing clues one by one to create a puzzle of sorts, but the chase towards finding the answers feels too slow, and also the entire first five episodes merely go into the setup without an actual big event taking place. Compare it to web shows such as The Family Man, and you will instantly realise how inconsistent the attempt to create a taut crime thriller is. There seems to be a lack of clarity on the part of the director about where the story is headed.
Among the things that work for his series, though, is the fact that it makes up for the lack of everything else with good casting. Manikandan is particularly excellent in his role of Padalam. As for Atharvaa, the actor tries to do the best of what he can with a script that doesn’t offer much. The supporting characters of Ilavarasu, Gautham Menon and more deliver their best in every scene. Another element where the show succeeds is in capturing the perfect vibe with the locations. The night patrol and other scenes that have been shot on-location bring a sense of realism to the story that otherwise seems scattered.
The problem remains, though, that despite watching five episodes of over forty minutes, there is hardly anything that you know about these characters. There is an on-the-surface look at their personalities, and one would have expected to learn more. There are also no interesting confrontations or chase sequences that would add to this series to make for gripping elements.
Mathagam Review Final Thoughts:
This Tamil crime thriller series seems like a missed opportunity. Despite having a good cast and a decent story at hand, the show never really takes off for it to even have a rough landing. Instead, it tries to play safe and thus ends up becoming a mediocre affair. With a cliffhanger ending, the expectation is that fans will look forward to what happens next on the show, but unfortunately, they don’t provide us with enough fodder to root for these characters.
Mathagam is currently streaming on Hotstar.
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