Memu Review

Memu Review, What’s Behind: Star hero Suriya’s Tamil film ‘Pasanga 2’ is released in Telugu as ‘Memu.’ The movie in overall speaks about children, parents, teachers and the educational environment in India. Largely inspired from ‘Taare Zameen Par,’ let us see how director Pandiraj handled this in our following review.

Memu Story: Two cute kids Naveen (Kavin), son of Shiva (Ramdoss) and Divya (Vidya Pradeep) and Naina (Vaishnavi), daughter of Akhil (Karthik) and Vidya (Bindu Madhavi) suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Unable to mingle with classmates and school environment, they frequently take exit from many schools with poor academics. They even create mischief when shifted to Boarding School. Finally, they end up meeting Child Psychiatrist (Suriya) and his school teacher wife (Amala Paul). How Naveen and Naina’s childhood is made more wonderful to evolve as winners is rest of story.

Memu Artists and Technicians: After the commercial applause for ‘Taare Zameen Par,’ our South film makers realized a new ground to exploit on children and our schooling system. Writer and director Pandiraj came up with a story which we find in our next door. Every parent dreams to foresee their children as Doctor or Engineer but never care for their own interest, passion or field of interest. In parallel, our teaching methods and rank based evaluation system building the pressure on tiny brains is also discussed at depth. When such conventional system fails on two hyperactive kids, how a Psychiatrist and Teacher bought a change is interestingly scripted and executed by Pandiraj.

‘Memu’ is entertaining to large extent in first half with kids being very naughty. Slowly it gets into serious mood with parental education and counseling making a point. This is where Pandiraj adopted a mediocre approach which led to conventional climax with unconventional message. Dialogues are definitely good for a dubbing film. Arroll Correlli’s musical essence suited the plot. Bala Subramaniam’s camera work is decent and so is Praveen KL’s editing. Production standards are also fairly good.

On to artists, Suriya and Amala Paul delivered neat performances. Suriya’s role resembles that of Aamir Khan in TZP, full of life and energy. Amala Paul has also put up a spirited show. About kids, Kavin and Vaishnavi went over-board in some scenes yet they are the very lifelines in whole narration. Their parents done by Ramdoss, Vidya Pradeep and Karthik, Bindu Madhavi have fit into characters. Rest may not need much attention.

Memu Rating Analysis: Modern educational methods are proving to be cumbersome for tiny tots. With heavy bags onto shoulders and unbearable strain injected into brains, they are made to perform as robots. From very fundamental play schools to higher level educational institutions, the focus is on marks, grades and ranks but not on child’s individual excellence. ‘Memu’ hits hard at parents from very kick-start when parents begin to chase best schools and project their aspirations much before the baby is born. Then the registration, admission processes in top schools is also made a mockery. Such elements surely connect with urban-middle class parents who just rub their dreams on descendants. All these episodes made first half entertaining. As we enter into second half, Pandiraj began to address all the concerns mentioned in first half with emotionally, overdosed drama. Climax is too cinematic as the two kids, parents, Suriya and Amala Paul perform oversensitive.   

What’s good about ‘Memu’ is, instead of regular commercial shades the film simply represents and raises questions which every caring parent had in their thought. Answers aren’t new yet the film is worth-a-watch for kids and parents. Better promotions could take such meaningful movies to next level. Analyzing all these factors, ‘Memu’ is worth to be rated with 2.75 stars.

Memu Cinejosh Verdict: Educational, Emotional and Entertaining.

                                               Memu Cinejosh Rating: 2.75/5.0

                                                                           Reviewed by Srivaas