Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam

1/4/2016

'It's difficult to narrate some love stories... We have tried' — This statement is what opens Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam, Gitanjali Selvaraghavan's debut film. Working from a script written by her husband, Selvaraghavan, the director has given us a film that, like most Selvaraghavan films, explores an aspect of romance that mainstream cinema finds queasy to talk about. The film begins with Manoja (Wamiqa) being wooed by her one-time boyfriend Tarun (Sharran) and flashes back to narrate her life with Prabhu (Balakrishnan). He is, again, like most Selvaraghavan heroes, an introvert, who doesn't know how to behave with women. But as fate would have it, he gets married to Manoja — her cancer-stricken mother pretty much blackmails her to agree to this. But, on their wedding night itself, Manoja