‘Malli Modalaindhi’ Review: Lost in translation

Express News Service

Love in a relationship is not eternal and we may come across a situation where you feel better living separately. A few people will be able to understand this conflict without much ado, but chef Vikram (Sumanth), the protagonist of Malli Modalaindhi, struggles to come to terms with it.

Not because he is in love with his wife Nisha (Varshini Sounderajan), but it is due to a situation he never anticipated in his life. Pressure, conflict, and confrontation are the three things that bother him a lot. However, he later realises that Nisha is extremely unhappy with him. From his perspective, she is whiny and naggy but from her point of view, Vikram is emotionally detached. He agrees to divorce her without understanding why they have to part ways in the first place.

The concept of Malli Modalaindhi seemed like a great idea on paper, but it didn’t translate well on screen. The attempt to make it a slice-of-life comedy fails. The problem is that there is no conviction in Vikram’s character and none of his conflicts are relatable. For the most part, Vikram is unaware of how problematic he is being a husband. When he decides to start life afresh after divorce, he is not a changed man. He is still the same man that Nisha rightfully found problematic. Till the climax, there is no introspection on where he went wrong in his relationship. By then, it is too late to salvage the film.

Malli Modalaindhi also discusses this grand idea of having a unique place for divorcees where they get therapy on mental health, and also meet people to take the necessary first step to move on in life. This novel idea backfired as the place has been put to wrong use by these locked-down singles, who begin to on blind dates to find their prospective partner. 

The problem again is not the blind dates, but using mental health as bait to connect with the audience. In reality, however, they do little to nothing to dig into Vikram’s mental psyche. Every time he is sad and has mood swings, the film expresses it through his binge drinking and scorched food. The only scene that truly works in the film is when men and women share their experiences of being in an unhappy marriage.

Beyond that, Malli Modalaindhi is a failed attempt at capturing the struggles of divorced people in society. Speaking of the female characters, neither Nisha nor Pavi (Naina Ganguly), seem to have a life of their own. Their characters were etched from Vikram’s perspective. At the end, when Vikram finally begins to introspect the reason behind his problems, you give up on the film and its characters.

Malli Modalaindhi
Cast: Naina Ganguly, Sumanth, Suhasini Mani Ratnam
Director: TG Keerthi Kumar
Streaming on Zee5
Rating : 1.5/5