Suriya-Amala Paul Movie Memu Telugu Version Review, Rating
The promos looked promising but the film starring Superstar Suriya and Amala Paul is even better than the adverts. “Memu” is a beautiful children’s film that should be watched by all parents, grand-parents and teachers who share a common interest in raising bright and happy children in today’s challenging environment where everything around a child’s world seems to take away the innocence and beauty of childhood. Dubbed from the Tamil film “Pasinga-2”, the story and the treatment from the start to the finish speak of an extraordinarily determined team of people who want to use the powerful medium of cinema to deliver a biting message about how most of the prisms and perspectives around parenting and bringing up kids are woefully wrong and inadequate to raise the next-gen kids.
The film gets into business from frame one with the story of a high school kid who is taunted by a bully to complete a round of running in a seven-round marathon in a village school in Tanuku. The boy is stout and obese but completes the rounds nevertheless and sprints fast enough to touch the winnner’s tape until the authorities realise he made the first round while everybody else is in the seventh round. The boy, however, gets a special prize as the jury decides to recognize his remarkable perseverance to complete the round when he could have just given up. Years later, it is the same boy who grows up to be Dr.Ramanathan, a gifted Child Psychologist who leads a happy life with his wife Amala Paul who runs a “DreamzUnschool”, two lovely kids and a set of grand parents. The real story unfolds between this boy’s recognition and the appearance of Suriya with two set of parents who bring up kids in extremely stressful conditions – depriving them of attention and acknowledgement of their real talents while bulldozing them with a might set of expectations. Consequently, both the kids Navya and Naveen actually turn out to be hyperactive kids who bring down the roof wherever they go. They change the school every year and bring embarrassment and censure from all and sundry including the school managements. Driven by desperation, they take the extreme step of sending the kids to boarding school – leading to more problems. Will the kids get to live with their parents again? How will the parents get out of the self-created loop of despondency they imposed on themselves and their kids? What role does Dr. Ramanathan and his wife play finally? To find out more, you gotta watch the film with kids and parents and everybody else who is interested in educating kids and watch this delightful film with some evocative treatment and unconventional wisdom that tugs at your heart.
In 127 minutes, director Pandiraj weaves a fascinating story about how to let children be themselves while educating them in the way that their true talents and abilities blossom. Equipped with great music by ArrolCorreli and cinematography by Balasubramaniam, director Pandiraj gives us one of the finest children’s films that completes the trilogy he promised to children when he undertook the movie “Pasinga” first followed by “Marina” and now “Pasinga 2”. What is exemplary in the film is that for the first time, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) has been tackled with a lighter touch and a mature treatment by Pandiraj. The film is relevant for all parents, kids and educators because in the crowded world of smartphones, tablets and television almost every child is either becoming ADHD-affected or becoming laidback in areas which give the parents and teachers sleepless nights. By attacking the issue right from where its genesis comes in – at the womb when the mother conceives – and travelling with the various stages where pitfalls can occur, Pandirajgives a much-needed cinematic twist to a problem that actually became a blessing in disguise for many famous personalities who got affected by it – e.g. Thomas Alva Edison, Bill Gates, Will Smith, Dr.AbdulKalaam and so on. Pandiraj doesn’t make the script didactic nor message-heavy; instead he shows what he wants to drive home through the characters of the children and their parents and educators. OF course, the punch lines eventually come from Suriya and Amala Paul as the specialists who relate to children better than their own parents.
The film has a few good songs shot with lot of appeal and special effects that will endear them to the children. But the words and messages make their impact on you. They resonate with you hard and make you wake up to the dangers of part-time parenting and harmful parenting that is worse than not having kids at all. It also tells a lot on the current educational system where we equate the best education with those schools which charge the most exorbitant fees. One line says it all: “In the good old days, the government used to run the schools and the private individuals ran liquor shops. Now, the government runs liquor shops and the private parties run the best schools.” Something has gone wrong and to set things right, a revolution in parenting and education has to set in. It won’t come in as long as we send kids to become engineers and ivy-league graduates. It won’t come as long as we want every child to top the exams. It won’t come when we disregard the kids’s special talents and proclivities in favor of learning just life skills. The only thing that will set this right is to change the lenses with which we view schools and our kids when they go there. Schooling and education is not the same and as long as parents think that education ends in school without any collaborative inputs from themselves to develop their children, the conundrums thrown up by the film “Memu” will remain. Unless it impacts you.
“Memu” deserves all-round watch and widest audience for enriching a film with genuine content and timely subject. That Tamil Superstar Suriya has okayed this script after passing over 50 stories and decided to launch it with his maiden production “2 D Entertainment” has elevated the film’s appeal in the same way as Aamir Khan did for “TaareZameen Par”. If you want to enjoy a great film where you discover the joys of childhood and appreciate the nuances of healthy parenting, do not miss “Memu”. It is outstanding and the performances of the newcomer kids who played Navya and Naveen will mesmerize you. OF course, Superstar Suriyaa will bowl you over with another mesmerizing performance. Wish more such films will permeate our Cinema which is starved of good children’s subjects.
Telugu360 Rating: 3/5
