Direction: Saran
Cast: Aarav, Radhikaa, Kavya Thapar, Sayaji Shinde, Aditya Menon
The idea behind Saran’s Market Raja is easy enough to get: what would happen if a menacing don is suddenly transformed into a totally different person altogether, and one that is the polar opposite of his current personality? Well, the result is MRMBBS.
The movie’s main guy is Market Raja (Aarav), a ruthless gangster from North Chennai and he’s a bit of a sociopath. Raja, in conjunction with a minister Radha (Sayaji Shinde) under whom he works, plans to take down his opponent Ramadass (Hareesh Peradi) and succeeds in doing so. Raja is also very disparaging of his mom Sundari Bhai (Radhikaa), and she’s a street-smart woman who runs her own little business. The cops instigated by Ramdass concerned by the growing law and order situation, brings in an encounter specialist from the North to straighten things out.
Meanwhile, Vanisri (Kavya Thappar), a medical student, falls in love with Raja and the latter must decline her proposal as thugs can’t be seen in such a relationship. A fellow docile student Chandrababu (Vihaan) seeks out Vanisri in vain. She challenges him to visit a graveyard at midnight in order to accept his love. The cops chase Raja on the same night, and in a scuffle, they kill Chandrababu. Now in a reversal to the traditional ghost story, Market Raja is transformed over night as a naïve nobody, making for a rather sticky and humorous situation.
MRMBBS is a good attempt at making a light-hearted comedy flick. The first half moves briskly but things go downhill when the spirit appears. The comedy is very underwhelming, and the juxtaposition of the serious and the silly doesn’t really work. Arav as the tough guy is okay, but he falters in the comic portions. Kavya Thappar is a bit generic. Adithya Menon as Aarav’s sidekick Das is hilarious. His attempts at comedy for the first time are enjoyable. Overall, MRMBBS falls short of expectation.
