After flying in for a friend's wedding, Khaaliq stumbles across a plot to assassinate the Chief Minister at a political rally (public conference). When he tries to stop it, Khaaliq is killed and unexpectedly wakes up on the airplane again. This second time around he's struck by a sense of deja vu and ultimately discovers that he's in a time-loop. Each time he comes across the plot from a different angle and struggles to stop the assassination attempt. And each time he is killed which returns him to the plane.
This is a really great time-loop thriller with fantastic action scenes and an unexpected twist that ratchets up the suspense and action.
As I was explaining this genre to my mother while we were watching, she asked, "But why is it happening?" And I realized that the time-loop genre doesn't bother to explain why. It is just how things are until the person is released. I mean, we all know why just from watching the story over and over. In Groundhog Day the person must mature. In Happy Death Day, she must figure out who murders her. And so forth and so on.
Maanaadu has an actual explanation that makes sense in the world of the movie (especially, one assumes, if you are Hindu). It gives all the more resonance to the reason Khaaliq wants to solve the problem and find his way to tomorrow.
I really enjoyed the pacing. Often time-loop films drag when they repeatedly show us what is happening or changing in each iteration of the day. This movie quickly gets you up to speed — and speed is the right word — because once we've gone through two or three versions of the day, the director begins each section right at the point where it went wrong before. It doesn't take long to catch on that this is happening and it speeds us right past all the repetitive bits.
The film is self aware enough to mention many time-loop movies and we especially enjoyed when one of the characters complained, "You are confusing me more than Christopher Nolan's Tenet." That Tenet was a confusing mess has never been more universally acknowledged than when it is zinged by a Tamil film. Thank you, Venkat Prabhu!
This is available now on Amazon Prime for $2.99 and it is money well spent.
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