Mani Rathnam is one of the most revered and respected directors around the world. He gave many classics but these days his film grammar is unable to gain him box office glamour. He did a mafia based ensemble movie after a long time, let’s see how it is …
Plot : Bhoopathi Raju (Prakash Raj) grows as an untouchable mafia leader and his sons, Varada (Aravind Swamy) who is highly flammable and volatile, Thyagu (Arun Vijay) a screwd businessman and Rudra (Silambarasan) a drug and weapon dealer, are set in different countries. Varada works under his father and rest of them are staged in foreign countries.
An attack on Bhoopathi Raja opens a can of worms and entire family comes together to known who is behind the attack. Inspector Rasool (Vijay Sethupathi) tries to help them in finding the real person behind the attack. Who is behind the attempt? What happened to Bhoopathi and whom will succeed after him? Watch the movie for answers…
Performances : Aravind Swamy got the best character out of the pack and he delivered the best performance too.
Vijay Sethupathi has a highly likeable screen presence and he is very good in this film too.
Silambarasan is one of the most likeable actors around when he decides to sync his teeth into the role, he is offered. He did bring his A-game to the film.
Arun Vijay, Prakash Raj, Thyagarajan performed very well in their characters. They looked like their characters and were apt in every scene.
Aishwarya Rajesh, Jayasudha, Diana Errappa and Jyothika got best possible female lead characters in a complete make dominated film and they did well too.
Technicalities : AR Rahman’s music is top notch for this film. His songs and BG Score are apt for the film. His best work for a Mani film in recent years.
A Sreekar Prasad’s editing is one of the major pluses for the film. Movie doesn’t have even one single moment which we feel like is unnecessary and not even one frame that doesn’t sync with the film at all.
Santhosh Shivan’s visuals are a great plus for the film. He managed to surprise us with his clever use of depth and staging techniques in the entire movie. He did not try to overuse technique that will kill story and emotion. He enhanced the affect the narrator wanted to deliver without fail.
Mani Rathnam, Shiva Ananth, the writers of the film managed to deliver a gangster film that doesn’t follow the known template even though it is all about how an empire collapses after one bad move by a pawn to remove the lynch pin. They delivered the movie about a crisis is the most satisfying way, we can imagine as writers.
Mani Rathnam is a master craftsman when it comes to narration and filmmaking. He knows precisely how to deliver a cut and how to shoot an emotion. He tried to experiment bit more than he normally does, in his previous films and now, he kept that urge under check. He delightfully composed a treat for his fans and a good film for normal audience.
Analysis : Mani Ratnam is a master filmmaker and great story-teller. There are no two thoughts about it. The master at times might have failed to impress with his writing but he never failed as a filmmaker. This time he managed to excel as a filmmaker and writer too. He controlled his ambition to make an artistic film yet he struck a delightful balance between an art house film and a commercial film with known stars ensemble.
He made them all look like characters and also drove home the idea of a mafia based gang war film by setting the story in a family. The kind of twists and emotions he managed to deliver on screen are amazing. He showed that a story-teller can never age and delivered an young experienced film that entertains us.
Rating : 3/5
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