A pulverizing anti message film
For a Vikram film, which was preposterously titled ‘Mahaan’, this happened to be a quickie. With the first single of the movie too not creating much hype and falling under regular troupe of Santhosh Narayanan’s latest outings, it looked like it was going to be the same old story of any Vikram movie but the real attention started with the teasers and trailers where the film felt appealing. But the puzzle solved itself only after watching the movie. In fact the whole setup was to make audience think of something else and come up with something wholly different.
There is a short, not so appealing flashback at the start with three kids involving in a game of cards. It happens so quick that we don’t get a grasp of it. One of the kid Gandhi Mahaan, ends up to be the forty year old Vikram in the next scene, who has to abide by the rules his family, society has framed/set for him. It was a pleasure to watch Vikram do such a subtle under performance in the beginning but it doesn’t last long as he gets a free license for a day. His wife Nachi (an amazing Simran) and his kid Dadabhai Naoroji leave him because of the incident. From that point to interval it was just a pleasure watching Vikram on screen. Time and again he shows what an actor he is. He is a straight out Hollywood material who could match up with the likes of Al Pacino and De Niro in a Scorsese gangster flick.
The three friends unite together at most interesting points. In fact any character who appears for a scene, reunites at superb juncture. Sathya (Bobby Simha) at gambling, Gnanam (Vettai Muthukumar) when they plan to get a seemingly impossible license for their drink and Manikkam (Ramachandran) at his lone birthday party. In fact its Manikkam’s words which makes a seemingly innocent Gandhi turn into Mahaan. Isn’t it just apt that Gandhi thinks of only Manikkam during his birthday? And the chemistry between all of them with Vikram was fabulous. None looked like lesser known actors. It was great to see so much comfort level on screen.
It was good to see Karthik Subbaraj trying to come out of comfort zone. He could have easily done a normal gangster movie with Vikram and could have gotten away with it as a runaway hit but the path he takes in second half and establishes a lead actor without questioning his morality was brilliant. Pro Gandhian, Pro Alcohol or pro or anti of anything is not easy to establish. But he does it with élan. The scene where Dada (Dhruv) refuses to drink alcohol was such a lively scene. It could have been easily laughed at. If it had been laughed at, the film would have been a failure. Only because the emotions of it could be understood, it makes for a compelling watch.
Karthik had tried to do something different with ‘Iraivi’ and ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ but couldn’t. With ‘Iraivi’ it got too personal and self-righteous and with ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ it got too hollywoodish, so much so that it looked plasticky. But with Mahaan he held his ground even though he had not aced it. There were few brilliant scenes where the emotions were stripped off, like, every time Vikram thinks of family, it doesn’t happen for more than a couple of seconds, he laughs it off with his peers dismissing that his past life was nothing but crap. (Something like Ranbir brushing of Deepika rejecting her proposal in ‘Tamasha’ but that was not as subtle as ‘Mahaan’) Karthik could have easily made those scenes a cry fest and made us empathize with Vikram. But he doesn’t, and that’s the beauty. In one of the scenes he so effortlessly dismisses his wife Nachi from his life. He says something like, “avala epovo thooki potachu, payana than maraka mudila”. It’s so cruel a scene which I’m afraid whether other actors would have done it but it happens so effortlessly in the movie.
Climax is where the entire villainess of Gandhi comes to fore. It was a treat to watch Vikram in full flow. Like my friend commented, Vikram gave an audition for ‘Marudhanayagam’ with his ‘Hey Ram’ caricature. Dhruv who was trying so hard to match with Vikram in the face off scenes had to succumb completely in the climax. In fact he obeying his dad in film felt more real than the remaining scenes. Gandhi calling him a puppy in the call to Gnanam was probably the cruelest scene of the movie. May be the people who couldn’t connect with the movie citing that they couldn’t understand the emotions were actually the ones who couldn’t digest the fact that the lead needn’t always have to be a morally correct person.
The length of the film felt justified. May be it could have explored more about Dada and the flashback sequences. The actors, especially the trio of Vikram, Bobby Simha and Vettai Muthukumar were terrific. Even Sananth as Rocky was brilliant. In fact everyone were, except for Dhruv. May be it’s a miscasting. He was not bad, in fact a lot better than I expected but he was forced with a herculean task to match up with Vikram. Karthik or may be Vikram wanted the character to be macho and tried to add a lot of cool factors like Vikram’s previous mannerisms and dialogues but it was a total put off. May be a cop who hardly talks and generally broody in nature would have appealed more.
Overall it was a superb movie with Vikram and it was like showing the next generation what he’s capable of. People who are newly discovering him (thanks to a series of flops) would have been wondering why was he not in limelight all through the years.
constantscribbles 