Maareesan, directed by Sudheesh Sankar, is a quintessential mystery thriller, with some dramatic twists and turns, that might not seem very realistic but remains thoroughly entertaining and, more than anything else, deeply gratifying. It’s always a treat to watch Fahadh Faasil on screen, and I have to say here that the film benefited greatly from Vadivelu’s quaint portrayal of a common man, distressed and weighed down by the system. So let’s find out what happened in Maareesan and how the protagonist, whose only intention was to rob an old, helpless man, got entangled in a web of chaos.
Spoiler Alert
Was Dhayalan able to steal money from Velayudham?
After serving a sentence in Palayamkottai jail, Dhayalan, aka Dhayal, was released, and without wasting a moment, he started pickpocketing and stealing whatever he could get his hands on. He got some cash, stole a mobile phone, and then finally stole a bike from the parking lot of a cinema hall. Dhayal reached in front of a house, and he couldn’t understand why he felt the urge to break in and rob the place. He was probably destined to be there at that time, because otherwise, one couldn’t find logic behind what happened next. He went inside the house only to find a man named Velayudham Pillai, chained to his window near the bed. That man addressed Dhayal as Kumar, and for a moment, the latter didn’t understand what was happening. Velayudham was apparently suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia, and there were phases when he didn’t remember anything. Velayudham asked Dhayal to free him, and he offered to give him ten thousand rupees in return. Velayudham said that though he did not have any money, he could withdraw it from an ATM and give it to him. Surprisingly, Velayudham remembered his PIN, and Dhayal saw that there were around 25 lakh rupees in his account. Dhaylan decided that until and unless he stole that money from him, he wouldn’t leave his side. The reason Dhayalan became a thief was because he had got tired of his mundane life, and was eagerly looking for a chance to break out of it. He got to know that Velayudham was headed to his brother-in-law’s house in Tiruvanamalai, and he slyly offered him a lift there, hoping that he would find a way to strip the old man of every last penny. Dhayalan, on his way, realized that Velayudham had two ATM cards, and so he asked his friend Ganesh to make duplicate copies of the cards. Velayudham kept altering his stories and destinations, and Dhayalan had a hard time differentiating truth from fiction, never certain where fantasy ended and reality began. There came a point where Dhayal just wanted to use the duplicate card and steal all his money, but Velayudham didn’t remember the ATM PIN. Dhayal knew that he couldn’t give Velayudham any reason to doubt his intentions, and so he stayed with him, putting up with his idiosyncrasies. Little did Dhayal know that it was not he who was fooling Velayudham, but the other way round. It was a classic case of the hunter being hunted, and Dhayal was totally oblivious to reality.
What had happened to Velayudham’s wife?
Dhayal was trying to buy time because he desperately wanted to know Velayudham’s ATM pin. One day, he saw a bunch of broken SIM cards inside Velayudham’s wallet. Dhayal realized that the old man was up to something. Dhayal kept his phone camera open to find out what Velayudham did when he was not around. Dhayal came out of the room, and later, through the recording, he saw Velayudham spiking his drink. That’s when Dhayal connected the dots. He realized why he got up so late every morning since he had started drinking together with Velayudham. That night, Dhayal followed Velayudham, and that’s when it was revealed that the man had killed three people up to that point. Dhayal believed that Velayudham was a human trafficker and that he was ruining the lives of innocent girls. Dhayal’s circumstances might have made him a thief, but even he had certain ethics and morals. He started despising the old man as he read the messages on his phone and got to know that he was pimping girls for a client named Arun. But Dhayal misunderstood the entire situation. He didn’t know why Velayudham was murdering those people. Velayudham’s wife, Meenakshi, was a psychiatrist, and she handled a lot of girls who were minors and victims of sexual abuse. It was Meenakshi who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and Velayudham saw his beloved wife’s condition worsening every passing day. There were times when the woman got up in the middle of the night and started cooking breakfast because her mind couldn’t decipher what time of day it was. One time, Meenakshi was a key witness in a sexual abuse case, but due to her fading memory, she wasn’t able to help the victim’s cause in the court. The accused was released, and Meenakshi wasn’t able to bear that guilt. The poor woman took her own life, but before taking her last breath, she gave a list of perpetrators to Velayudham, believing that he was the superintendent of police. Velayudham’s heart was shattered into a million pieces as the most important person in his life failed to recognize him. After Meenakshi passed away, Velayudham took it upon himself to teach a lesson to these perpetrators.
Who killed Ganesh? And why?
Velayudham had killed three people up until then, all of whom were people who were charged with sexual abuse but released due to lack of evidence. Velayudham posing as a man called Sundaram from Dubai was trying to find a man named Arun, who happened to be a close friend of an accused named Siva Selvam. Siva was a schoolteacher, and he had sexually abused a couple of students. Dhayal had no clue that Velayudham was doing what the legal system of the country couldn’t. Yes, he wasn’t doing things the right way, but I don’t think Velayudham did not care about being righteous in his approach as long as he made the perpetrators pay for their actions. Dhayal gave a call to Ganesh and told him that Velayudham was a pedophile. Ganesh told Dhayal that they should take Velayudham to their farmhouse and teach him a lesson. Dhayal agreed, but then the biggest revelation was made: Ganesh was the fourth perpetrator, Siva Selvam’s’s friend, Arun, whom Velayudham had been searching for quite some time. Velayudham might not have figured it out if he hadn’t seen the soft toy hanging in Ganesh’s car. The moment he said he recognized it as the same one from Arun’s WhatsApp display picture, Arun, aka Ganesh, also realized that if he didn’t kill the man, he would spill his secrets. Ganesh attacked Velayudham after getting to his farmhouse, but before he could kill him, Dhayal, who was following them on his bike, arrived at the scene. Ganesh asked Dhayal to kill Velayudham, but he did not in the end since he had gotten to know the truth about Velayudham and what Ganesh was hiding from him.
Velayudham had called Dhayal, and every word of his conversation with Ganesh was overheard by him. It was Dhayal who killed Ganesh, as he felt disgusted by him, and he couldn’t stop himself. But when the police arrived, Velayudham took the blame upon himself, and he confessed to all four murders.
Will Velayudham Be Sent To Prison?
In Maareesan’s ending, Velayudham confessed to each and everything in the court; he told the judge what had happened with his wife, and he said that he had no guilt over taking the lives of those lecherous men who had ruined the lives of many innocent girls. The court found Velayudham guilty, and it acquitted Dhayal due to lack of evidence. A judge stated that the final judgment would be delivered in a week’s time, and so we never got to know how many years Velayudham would spend behind bars. He will definitely have to serve a certain number of years for sure, but I guess the court will take into consideration his righteous motive behind doing so and show some kind of mercy. As for Dhayal, he knew that he had found someone he could call his father. Also earlier we saw that Velayudham left a check for ten lakh rupees, and Dhayal’s mother was shocked when she saw it. When she called Dhayal to tell him about it, his perspective about Velayudham changed completely. Up until then he was just treating Velayudham as a person he wanted to rob, but then he saw how kind he was. He saw that the man was sensitive enough to perceive that Dhayal was a thief only because of his circumstances. Velayudham had related that Dhayal was not a bad man, and if given an opportunity, he could bring his life back on track and not indulge in illegal activities. Generally when a person is labeled as a thief, then the general presumption is that they were not trustworthy. But that was not the case with Dhayal, and Velayudham saw the goodness in him that others overlooked. He had come there with the intention of robbing Velayudham, but the man’s generosity, his selflessness, and his kindness left him with a profound lesson. He jokingly remarked that he had figured out Velayudham’s ATM PIN; it couldn’t have been anything else than his wife’s birthday.
