'Mahaan' review: Vikram shines in a stylish yet predictable film

Mahaan
Tamil (Amazon Prime Video)
Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Cast: Vikram, Dhruv Vikram, Simran
Rating: 3/5

Tamil film heroes are changing. We saw Vijay play a professor with alcohol addiction in 'Master' (2021). Sivakarthikeyan was excellent as this straight-faced, boring yet highly practical and intelligent doctor in 'Doctor' (2021).

Vikram joins the list with his portrayal of liquor baron and a gambling king in Karthik Subbaraj's Mahaan. With Vikram, you expect an experimental role in every outing but despite the impeccable transformations, his characters were typical 'hero materials' whom we rooted for.

Mahaan is different as its hero is a man with shades of grey and you will find it difficult to fully love him. That's what makes the film's premise interesting.

Vikram plays Gandhi Mahaan, who is born into a family of freedom fighters. As his name suggests, he is raised as a strict follower of Gandhism. His family puts the onus on him to spearhead the liquor ban movement in Tamil Nadu and become a 'mahaan' (great) like Gandhi.

Mahaan questions whether morals and principles lead to a satisfying life. Or is it important to ditch perfection and live a life that makes us happy? Gandhi Mahaan chooses the latter.

Fed up of a monotonous life, he decides to break rules and enjoy his life. How does he do that? By joining hands with his school friend Sathyavan (Bobby Simha) to become the king of Tamil Nadu's liquor empire. This comes at the cost of separating from his wife (Simran) and son.

This transformation feels hurried as Karthik doesn't allow the scenes to breathe. As a result, we remain emotionally disconnected with the film. The uncontrolled pace seemed inevitable as the film aims to be a cracking father-son duel and not just the story of the central character.

So Mahaan is induced with fresh energy with a gripping interval block typical of Karthik. Dhruv is introduced as Dadabhai Naoroji a.k.a Dada in a small stretch that oozes with slickness.

Dhruv oversells some scenes but his ruthless act of a cop is fascinating to watch because he brings the fear in our minds about 'what could unfold next'. Dada is on a mission to eliminate his father and his business. Revenge is the only solution for what his father did to his family, he believes. The dangerous unpredictable quality of the character is exactly what the painfully predictable film needed.

Mahaan is a visually stunning film. The costumes, colour tones, and the looks, especially of Vikram, are marked with swag. Cinematographer Shreyass Krishna has responded to the director's maverick love for flamboyance. The film's vibrant look and Santosh Narayan's 'massy' background score would have had a greater impact on the big screen.

It comes out the best in two excellent fight sequences. The first one is when a soft Gandhi Mahaan sheds his non-violent attitude and learns to back his punchlines with few punches. It's a wonderfully choreographed scene and what matches it is the long action stretch between Vikram and Dhruv.

Karthik loves to blend style with substance. He does this with little success in Mahaan. He organically weaved in his stance on the respective subjects of 'Jigarthanda' and 'Iraivi' but in 'Jagame Thandhiram' (2021) and now in 'Mahaan', he clearly seems to have lost control in this approach.

The writing completely lacks freshness and except for a long yet engrossing argument between Gandhi Mahaan and his wife, the rest of the characters talk about the film's intentions and philosophies in long and boring soap-opera like dialogues. What we also miss is the trademark dark and unexpected humour and intense scenes that Karthik is famous for.

Vikram might not be a great box office bet but when it comes to performance, he is one of the most dependable actors in the industry. It's a meditative experience to watch the versatile actor carry a generic film on his shoulders.

Despite its length (160 minutes) and the other issues, Mahaan is a welcome return to form for Karthik, whose golden run ended with the underwhelming Jagame Thandhiram last year. It appears as if the director is becoming too simplistic with his writing. The pace at which he is finishing projects with big stars might have sucked out his energy to successfully convert his interesting ideas on paper into equally interesting films.

Mahaan begins with a quote from Gandhi that says, 'Freedom is not worth having if it doesn't include the freedom to make mistakes'. Karthik's mistakes while attempting unique stories can perhaps be forgiven. But the truth remains that since Petta (2019), the director's craft has seen a decline.

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