Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Forged: Vikram, Dhruv Vikram, Simran
Karthik Subbaraj’s Mahaan is about ironies. It’s in regards to the irony {that a} man from a Gandhian household turns into a liquor baron. It’s in regards to the irony that one other man from the identical household turns into a psychopathic cop, hell-bent on revenge. And we’re left questioning who’s worse: the apparent liquor-making “sinner”, or the latter, who retains hitting you over the top together with his philosophies. On the finish, we get a line about extremists, and also you do surprise about individuals who “dwell and let dwell” and people who wish to field you into their “well-meaning” philosophies.
The primary half lies in that not nice however not unhealthy zone. It exhibits Vikram changing into that liquor baron. At first he’s a Gandhian—his identify is definitely Gandhi—and each different line mentions the Mahatma. It will get tiresome. However his life is tiresome, too. He can’t even see a Western film as a result of his spouse (performed by Simran) considers them stuffed with vices. When she goes on a visit on his fortieth birthday, this Ambi unleashes his internal Remo. Think about 40 years of repression bursting out like lava: that’s what occurs.
He meets his outdated good friend, a bar proprietor performed by Bobby Simha, whose son is Sananth. (These conferences play out a tad too coincidentally.) He drinks his weight in liquor. When Simran finds out, she leaves him, taking their son along with her–and Bobby and Sananth change into his surrogate household. In addition they change into one thing just like the Corleone household in The Godfather. They change into the booze kings.
However the first half suffers from one main drawback. It’s a must to introduce Dhruv Vikram within the interval block (he wants that grand entry), and so how do you refill the time till then? Karthik Subbaraj provides us a sequence of comparable conditions: there’s an enemy; he’s simply disposed of. Then there’s one other enemy; he, too, is well disposed of. The staging and the very good enhancing makes these sequences lovely to behold (the movie flows like silk), however there’s little or no emotional depth. (One actually spectacular facet in regards to the first half—regardless of its sameness—is that Vikram isn’t proven weeping for his misplaced household. He merely places his thoughts into enterprise and strikes on.) Issues occur so simply and easily for Vikram and gang that it’s exhausting to spend money on the story. There aren’t any stakes till the Dhruv character seems on the interval level.
However his introduction is a terrific scene, which includes a dance throughout a pageant. And Karthik, who normally likes to maintain us guessing, immediately tells us who this character is and what he’s as much as.
And the second half actually labored for me. The Dhruv character is splendidly psychotic (even when there are occasions his inexperience exhibits), and there’s a improbable scene the place somebody we’ve come to care about dies. It exhibits a father reeling in shock between his two fallen sons. The truth that we didn’t see Dhruv rising up provides to the suddenness of his entry. He is sort of a bat out of hell.
And the emotional angles that had been absent within the first half lastly emerge. For example, Vikram has a secret that he struggles to inform his closest mates. These scenes are enormously poignant, as a result of Vikram doesn’t overplay his dilemma. The perfect factor Karthik has executed in Mahaan is write an amazing half for an actor who doesn’t typically get nice components. Vikram does the large hero scenes superbly, however have a look at the pause he provides earlier than replying to Bobby Simha throughout a personal dialog, when the remainder of the gang is celebrating. Right here he’s Remo. Now have a look at him being Ambi in a superb scene with a beggar. The best way he sits, the way in which he makes use of his arms, as if to draw as little consideration as doable—if nothing else, Mahaan will likely be remembered as Vikram’s comeback. He’s actually spectacular, particularly within the second half the place he performs an older, greyer man.
As all the time in a Karthik film, there are these unusual touches, like a personality getting a divorce—it’s a plot level that doesn’t make a lot sense. However as all the time, Karthik compensates with a number of fascinating issues—and never simply the way in which he makes use of the digital camera. He makes use of taking part in playing cards like chapter titles and he provides us a canine named Joker. An early plot level when Vikram and gang had been youngsters has a line about betrayal from a detailed individual. An analogous scenario performs out between the identical characters late within the movie. The Bobby Simha character rediscovers Christ and calls Vikram Devadoothan. At one level, three tube lights gentle up behind Vikram and he does appear like Christ on a cross.
I feel all that is nice fodder for decoding. However additionally it is helpful to grasp how this director’s profession is evolving. In his final movie, Jagame Thanthiram, Karthik dived into the Eelam situation and made a movie a few broader international refugee disaster. In Mahaan—which is fortunately a way more coherent movie than Jagame Thanthiram— he dives into Gandhi-ism, and particularly Gandhi’s quote about how freedom received’t work except it contains the liberty to make errors.
With these two movies, Karthik Subbaraj appears to have began a brand new chapter in his profession. Pizza and Jigarthanda had been pure style movies in a means, and the rationale I like them a lot is that they match completely into Karthik’s means of storytelling, which incorporates a variety of narrative methods. You would embrace Petta on this checklist. That revelation about Vijay Sethupathi is one among my favorite Karthik “methods”.
Iraivi and Mercury had been extra messagey, and in addition extra sophisticated movies. On the floor, Iraivi was a drama and Mercury was a thriller—however there was so much occurring beneath the floor. However nonetheless, they had been “contained” movies. They’d a really clear form, very clear conflicts.
And now, he’s on this Jagame Thanthiram, Mahaan mode. His ambitions have change into larger. His messages have change into extra apparent. And the shape—particularly the screenplay—has change into extra sprawling. In different phrases, these will not be “contained” movies. They spill over with an excessive amount of intent, an excessive amount of content material.
Karthik Subbaraj stays an fascinating filmmaker, however about this new section, I’m going to finish with a number of traces from my Jagame Thanthiram evaluate, which apply to Mahaan, too. One: Issues get higher within the final third of the movie as a result of it’s extra emotional and we’re invested within the proceedings. General, you get the sensation of watching a not-bad generic drama. And two: You’re torn between the truth that somebody did a movie about an essential situation and that the movie isn’t as excellent because it could possibly be.
