Cast: Aarav, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nikesha Patel, Kavya Thapar, Nasser, Adithya Menon, Chaams, Rohini, Ramdoss and Devadarshini.
Director: Saran
Music Director: Simon K King
If manhandling one’s girlfriend or wife under the garb of ‘love’ is one extreme in our cinema (like last week’s Aditya Varma), the very thought of beating up one’s mother is the other… as in Market Raja MBBS. It’s impossible to understand why an actor as substantial as Radhika Sarathkumar agreed to play this role. When I walked out of the theatre, I couldn’t figure out what I had just watched. Was it horror or action-comedy or comedy-drama? (Really, it was a waste of my time.)
Market Raja (Aarav) is a ruthless young don in Perambur, known for his ability to effortlessly murder people and little else. The spirit of a young fearful medical student Chandra Babu (Vihaan), who he encounters at a medical college, possesses his body at a burial ground after a faulty cross-firing, turning Raja into a don with no grit. If you think the spirit has some purposeful motive in the movie which is how all ghost movies should work ideally, this spirit is bound to surprise you with its sole motive of wanting to kissing classmate Vani (Kavya Thapar) to be at peace. The problem here more than the premise is the execution.
There’s even a failed attempt at recreating the iconic ‘tough exam paper scene’ which featured in one of Saran’s best movies — Vasool Raja MBBS along with several dialogues that refer to the classic because there’s simply nothing new in this film of value. No character has a solid purpose and the sub-plots in the film have been placed only to bring about an emotional angle, (Rohini was superb in her role), and to build a weak path that winds towards the climax. I am yet to figure out why an introduction song was needed twenty minutes into the film, not to mention the useless number featuring Nikesha Patel, who plays Steffany in the movie.
A cool-headed Devadarshini tracks spirits with plastic equipment containing colourful lights and something like a Virtual Reality headset to watch and hear ghosts. Well, what can we say…
Market Raja MBBS Movie Stills Starring Rohini
Aarav who debuts as the protagonist after garnering fame through his television stint Bigg Boss doesn’t convince right through the film. The change in expression on my face while watching the movie was way more than the expressions Aarav had. He seemed conscious in both the fierce and soft versions, as if waiting for his co-artist to complete their dialogues so that he could spew his. Aarav has also failed to realise that Saran has cleverly made use of a newcomer to propagate his tasteless ideas.
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Radhika Sarathkumar, who plays Sundari, Raja’s mother gives us an over-the-top performance. An actor who is always at ease on screen fails to impress with this role. The overdose of jewelry seemed too much after a point and even the cigar she attempted to smoke, seemed unconvincing. It also couldn’t be more obvious that she couldn’t ride a Royal Enfield and it had to be matched with horrible VFX. While looking at the posters, I assumed that she plays a significant part in the narrative but was thoroughly disappointed in the end.
Adithya Menon (Hitman Das in the film) and Chaams (Lawyer Vardharajan in the film) are the only two artists who make the film bearable with their one-liners and good performance. Kavya Thapar looks great but doesn’t have much to do. Somehow, an encounter specialist Manohar Singh (Pradeep Rawat) is conveniently killed by an amateur with a whip, causing his spirit to take over the amateur’s body. Just when you think he’s about to bring about some chaos, he’s silenced with some voodoo. Vayapuri, on the other hand, serves as a dummy (pun not intended) corpse for the students at the medical college.
In this attempt to ‘keep up with the trend’, Saran who makes a comeback after his 2017 action-romantic Aayirathil Iruvar fails to even remotely entertain.
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The Market Raja MBBS review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.