Mouna Guru

Plot

College goer Karunakaran (Arulnidhi) always finds it difficult to adjust with the society that he lives. As a result, he is unable to control his anger and often ends up with some trouble. His unpredictable behaviour become a constant worry for his mother and brother. A series of incidents forces him to leave his home town Madurai and end up in Chennai. Despite scoring high marks in school, he joins a local arts college in the city and stays in a hostel where the trouble begins. Meanwhile, while traveling from Bangalore to Chennai, Assistant Commissioner Marimuthu (John Vijay), Inspector Rajendran (Madhu), Sub-Inspector Selvam (Balakrishnan) and Sgt/Head Constable Perumalsamy (Krishnamurthy) witness a car accident. When they are about to take the victim (son of a Bangalore-based business tycoon) to a nearby hospital, they come across a huge stash of cash. The policemen kill the (half dead) victim and flee to Chennai with the money. Then the sincere police officer Palaniammal (Uma Riyaz Khan) takes up this case. A cluster of lies, ego clash at the hostel and family's ignorance brings innocent Karunakaran into this crime plot. The rest is a racy roller-coaster ride that forms the climax.

Cast

Production

Palaniammal character portrayed by Uma Riaz Khan, a sincere police officer who is pregnant in her third trimester was a character closely resembling Marge Gunderson from Fargo portrayed by Frances McDormand. Santhakumar revealed that it took five days just to shoot the scene that comes before the intermission although it appears for just 10 minutes in the film. Similarly the climax sequences were shot over a period of 15 days.

Soundtrack

Film score and the soundtrack are composed by Thaman and the album was released on 15 November 2011 across Tamil Nadu.

Release

The film turned out to be a sleeper hit. Its shows were gradually increased and accounted for 54% of the takings in Chennai box office on its fourth weekend.

Reception

The film opened on 16 December 2011 across Tamil Nadu, alongside the Prashanth-starrer Mambattiyan, to positive reviews from critics. The Hindu gave the film a positive review citing that "Mouna Guru is one of the small gems of Tamil cinema this year" and that "it marks a promising debut for Shantakumar and advances Arulnidhi's career". Rohit Ramachandran from Nowrunning.com rated the movie 3/5 and wrote that "Mouna guru is a well-intentioned thriller that keeps you glued to your seat, which is more than I can say for most Tamil movies." Sify.com described the film as "very good", claiming it "works as an intelligent, taut thriller that sustains dramatic tension throughout". The critic also went on to claim that Arulnithi "drives the film with the intensity in his eyes, body language and an underplayed performance", while describing John Vijay's performance as "riveting". Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave the film three and a half stars and described the film as a "must-watch", while mentioning that Uma Riyaz Khan "walks away with the honours". Behindwoods.com gave the film three stars out of five praising the director Shantakumar's execution, while also singling out John Vijay's act as "the performance of his career".