A sense of deja vu is unavoidable when seeing Military. This is not just because the movie
is a remake of Hitler, a Malayalam movie starring Mammootty. What makes Military more familiar
is the fact that the Malayalam movie was also dubbed into Tamil. But even for viewers who have not seen either of the two
previous incarnations, Military's length, multitude of characters and confusing storylines may prove to be a little
too much to sit through.
Madhavan(Satyaraj) has earned the title 'Military' owing to his strictness when it comes to his five younger sisters. Any of
the youth who as much as lay their eyes on them get a taste of his anger. Lakshmi(Rambha), Madhavan's aunt's daughter,
is in love with him while her brother(Livingston) is in love with the second of Madhavan's sisters. Due to her own actions,
Madhavan is forced to get his first sister married to a widowed professor('Nizhalgal' Ravi). But this alienates the other sisters
from Madhavan and his second sister gets married against his wishes.
True to its Malayali origins, Military is teeming with characters and definitely has the most number of characters
to keep track of in recent movies. With the five sisters, their suitors, the family of Satyaraj's uncle, Manivannan and the
villains, following all the characters has our head reeling. Naturally, there are multiple storylines to follow too. But surprisingly,
none of the characters seem completely redundant and each of them has its importance in the story.
The movie goes down a path mixing comedy and the heavy parts for quite a while. While the antics of Livingston and the other
suitors are fashioned with an eye on invoking laughs, the sequences dealing with Manivannan are more serious. But neither
seems out of place and the movie switches between the different moods quite well. It has some good dialogs('Nizhalgal' Ravi's
conversation with Satyaraj is a good example) and throws in enough twists and turns to retain our interest.
Satyaraj fits the character of the stern brother quite well. He has reined in his usual nakkal style and this helps add
respect to the character. Rambha looks jaded and has little to do. Indu and Vijayalakshmi make a mark among the sisters
with Vijayalakshmi shining in the scenes where she raises her voice against Satyaraj. Livingston has probably the best
character in the movie and does well.
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