Maya Bazaar Review

If you are a Mammootty fan, you will surely enjoy Mammootty's latest venture Maya Bazaar by debutant director Thomas Sebastian. The film moves with some interesting twists and turns especially during the first half, but fails to reach anywhere and has nothing new or novel to offer.

Maya Bazaar is the name of a street where spare parts of condemned vehicles are sold. Rameshan (Mammootty), son of typical Akri Damodharan (Rajan P. Dev, who occasionally steals money from his son and sets out on pilgrimages) is a highly virtuous man, a good Samaritan who provides lunch packets to the ailing patients in a nearby hospital.

In fact, Rameshan is not a typical scrap dealer, who buys old vehicles, dismantles them and sells the parts. A lovable and fearless guy, he is an elegant, well-dressed young man sporting a funky hairstyle, silver earrings and wears stylish short shirts. He is adored by the charming Maya (Tamil actress Sheela now named Maya). But being a practical man, Rameshan does not pay any heed to her allure.

Rameshan often has to deal with a rival gang lead by Bhadran (Kalabhavan Mani), who deals with stolen vehicles and has an eye on Maya, her hand and her land. The entire first half has Rameshan and Bhadran taking on each other regularly, mainly over pretty Maya. Bhadran is desperate to get her, but she is completely smitten by Rameshan's charm. Several verbal and physical fights between Rameshan and Bhadran follow, after which the story takes an abrupt turn after the intermission and ends up nowhere.

Mammootty, who has portrayed some of the best roles in Malayalam, maintains his masculine charm all through the movie. Heroine Maya has nothing much to do. God only knows why Tisca Chopra accepted such an inconsequential role in Maya Bazaar, after her stunning performance as Darsheel Safary's mom in Taare Zameen Par.

Rajan P. Dev, Saikumar and Lalu Alex are in their very usual roles; the comedy trio of Sooraj Venjaranmoodu, Salim Kumar and Biju Kuttan fails to liven up and even to add any interest to the proceedings. In fact, this is one of the rare occurrences in recent times where Sooraj's character is a total letdown.

Coming to the technical side, the main problem with the film is the basic plot, penned by T.A. Razzak, one of the most experienced script writers of our times. The film suffers due to the amateurish, unimaginative script and mediocre compositions, while Manoj Pillai's cinematography and Prasanth Madhav's art direction are the finest points of the movie, making it a glossy, watchable affair.

No doubt, the team behind the film wracked their collective brains to bring something really interesting towards the end of the film. But disappointingly, they fail to capitalize on it and rush towards the climax in a moment. Anyway, the movie is enough for Mammootty fans to cheer, clap and hoot about; punch lines, comedy and their hero shaking a leg in couple of songs should make them cheer.

Banner: Akhil Cinema
Producer: Saji Mangalath

Cast: Mammootty, Tisca Chopra, Maya, Kalabhavan Mani, Rajan P. Dev. T.G. Ravi, Sooraj Venjaranmoodu, Salim Kumar, Sabitha Anand, Saikumar, Bijukuttan, Master Akhil, Lalu Alex, Yamini Sharma.
Direction: Thomas Sebastian
Music: Rahulraj