Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan

Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan (transl. The man who hates rain) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Vijay Milton. The film stars Vijay Antony, R. Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj, Megha Akash with Dhananjaya, Murali Sharma, Saranya Ponvannan, Pruthvi Ambaar, Thalaivaasal Vijay in supporting roles. It is a sequel to the 2014 film Salim.

Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vijay Milton
Written by	Vijay Milton
Produced by	Kamal Bohra D. Lalithaa B. Pradeep Pankaj Bohra
Starring	Vijay Antony R. Sarathkumar Sathyaraj Megha Akash
Cinematography	Vijay Milton
Edited by	Praveen K. L.
Music by	Achu Rajamani Vijay Antony Roy Hari Dafusia Vagu Mazan
Production company	Infiniti Film Ventures
Release date	2 August 2024 (2024-08-02)
Running time	133 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

The cinematography was by Vijay Milton, and editing was handled by Praveen K. L.

Plot

Salim is told to live a quiet invisible life but this changes when he sees a hurt beagle puppy named Hitler, and nurtures it to good health. On the island, he also befriends Burma, who owns Atho restaurant with his mother. And with Burma, Salim has run-ins with Daali, a tyrannical loan shark and goon. Meanwhile, Salim meets Hitler's owner, Sowmya and this is where the story gets interesting- Daali seems to be the common enemy for all, including Sowmya. What happens to Sowmya and how does Salim help her? How does Salim's past catch up with him?

Cast

• Vijay Antony as Dr. Mohammed Salim/Karthik
• R. Sarathkumar as Chief
• Sathyaraj as Captain
• Megha Akash as Sowmya
• Dhananjaya as Daali
• Murali Sharma as Surla IPS
• Saranya Ponvannan
• Pruthvi Ambaar as Burma
• Thalaivaasal Vijay

Production

In June 2019, after the success of the film Kolaigaran (2019), producer G. Dhananjayan announced that he is collaborating with Infiniti Film Ventures to produce a film with the actor Vijay Antony, mentioning that Vijay Milton will be the director of the project. Kamal Bohra, D. Lalithaa, B. Pradeep, and Pankaj Bohra bankrolled this venture under the banner Infiniti Film Ventures. Initially, Hansika Motwani and Sri Divya were considered to play the female lead in the film before confirming that Megha Akash was going to be the female lead of this film. The filming began around August 2021 after Vijay Milton finished his work for his Kannada directorial debut film Bairagee. In November 2021, it was confirmed that R. Sarathkumar is portraying an important role in this film. The crew finished filming the portions of Sarath Kumar on 14 December 2021. A few portions of the film were shot in Goa. Major portions of this film were shot in Daman and Diu, and the Daman-Diu schedule was wrapped up on 3 March 2022. In December 2021, the crew announced that Vijayakanth is also to be cast in the film, portraying an important role. The portions involving Vijayakanth were supposed to be filmed in around March 2022, but the actor's health condition made it impossible to include him in the film. The dubbing work began on March 14 with a puja, including crew members. The filming was completed on 16 June 2022. In July 2022, actor Nakkhul dubbed for the Kannada actor Pruthvi Ambaar.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Vijay Antony, Roy, Hari Dafusia, Vagu Mazan and Achu Rajamani.

Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan
Soundtrack album by Vijay Antony, Roy, Hari Dafusia, Vagu Mazan, Achu Rajamani
Released	2024
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	20:43
Language	Tamil
Label	TrendMusic
Producer	Vijay Antony, Roy, Hari Dafusia, Vagu Mazan, Achu Rajamani
External audio Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan – Jukebox on YouTube

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Theera Mazhai"	Vandana Mazan	Roy	Roy	3:53
2.	"Thediye Poren"	Muthamil	Hari Dafusia	Jyotsna Radhakrishnan	4:10
3.	"Ivan Yaaro"	Vadivarasu	Vijay Antony	Vijay Antony	4:27
4.	"Aham Brahmasmi"	Achu Rajamani	Achu Rajamani	Achu Rajamani	4:48
5.	"Dhinamum Kaanum"	Vandana Mazan	Vagu Mazan	Vijay Antony, Vagu Mazan	3:25
Total length:					20:43

Release

The film was released theatrically on 2 August 2024.

Controversy

On the release day of the film, after watching the film in critic screening, Vijay Milton expressed that the one-minute prologue scene had been added to the film without his permission. He said that the original censored version has no such prologue scene. He expressed his disbelief that someone from the crew included the scene without informing him, which will spoil the suspense of the character arc. He requested the audience watch the film without remembering the prologue scene.

Home media

The digital streaming rights to the film were acquired by Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

Roopa Radhakrishnan of The Times of India gave it two-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote, "a film that fell into the trap of trying to be a testosterone-filled crowd thriller. Even the meta references in the film fail to make an impact and seem to just be included for the claps." Avinash Ramachandran of The Indian Express rated the film one-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that "They often say third time’s the charm, but in the case of Mazhai Pidikatha Manithan, the third instalment in the Salim franchise is no charm but just a lot of harm due to the possibility of a fourth. Now that is a big problem, but then again, it isn’t that bad a thing, right?"

Latha Srinivasan of Hindustan Times gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Mazhai Pidikatha Manithan is a lacklustre film that doesn’t have much going for it. The film moves at a good pace thanks to parallel tracks but sadly, there is no cohesive strong, story to talk about." Janani K of India Today rated the film one-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that "Mazhai Pidikatha Manithan is yet another bad film in Vijay Antony and Vijay Milton's filmography."

Anusha Sundar of OTTplay gave it one-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote, "While the screenplay is fast-apced, the lack of character depth and unreal character arcs may leave you wanting more." Prashanth Vallavan of Cinema Express gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Bizarre directorial choices make this film a chaotic mess".

Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote, "Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan is a painfully predictable plot riddled with uninteresting characters stuck in unsurprising happenings". A critic from Maalai Malar rated the film two out of five stars.

External links

• Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan at IMDb