Ambikapathy is an orphan runaway who escapes from his cruel uncle to Chennai and eventually ends up at Marina Beach. He earns his livelihood by selling drinking water packets and later poached chickpeas to people visiting the beach. His calm and mature manners win him the admiration and later the friendship of other boys employed at the beach. Ambikapathy dreams of being educated, so he works in the day to save money for schooling whilst trying to study at night on his own. His desire to be enrolled in a proper school slowly begins to rub off on the other children at the beach. An old man and postman are the guardians of sorts for these street-children. The beach also attracts many lovebirds; one such couple is Senthilnathan and Swapnasundari.
Like Pandiraj's debut film Pasanga, Marina too revolves around children, focusing on the street-children at Chennai's Marina Beach, who peddle snacks and knick-knacks to survive. He acknowledged being inspired by the theme of Mira Nair's Hindi film Salaam Bombay! (1988).[5] Pandiraj approached Sivakarthikeyan to play the lead role and he signed the project. Sivakarthikeyan prepared for the role by paying close attention to Pandiraj's instructions and visiting Marina Beach extensively to study the surroundings, while revealing that he hoped that his natural talent of humor would come through onscreen.[6]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Marina, composed by the debutant Girishh G, was released on 9 January 2012 at the Marina Beach.[7] The song "Vanakkam Vaazhavaikkum Chennai", penned by Na. Muthukumar, talks about life in Chennai.[8]
Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com rated Marina 3/5 stating that it is "worth a watch."[9] N. Venkateswaran of The Times of India gave the film the same rating and wrote that "Director Pandiraj does, and comes up with a fairly engaging screenplay. He details with some depth some of their lives, and wins hearts all the way— much like in his debut film Pasanga. His dialogues are crackling with wit and humour and he draws the best performances from his ensemble cast.[10] On the contrary, Sify's critic dismissed the film as "boring."[3]
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