Review MERSAL (2017) - @NANDTALKS!

Vijay affectionately called as Thalapathy (recently promoted from ilayathalapathy by his hardcore fans) is one of the biggest crowd pullers in south indian cinema. After delivering a dud like Bairavaa(which I liked personally), expectations skyrocketed when Thuppakki star announced his reunion with Theri director, Atlee- one of most promising directors of Ktown. After spunning out half a dozen not much impressive commercial potboilers in mid 2000s, thalapathy began his current streak with Thuppakki. From Thuppakki onwards, there was some sort of social critic in his movies, which connected with the audience well. If Thuppakki is about terrorism, Kaththi is about corporates and water politics, Theri is about gender discrimination, Bairavaa is about Educational business, this time it is about booming medical business. From Robin Cook’s Coma to Ajith’s Yennai Arindhaal and upcoming Mohanlal starrer Villain, Medical thrillers are not alien to cinema. Yet I was quite excited to watch ‘Mersal’ after hearing about the big names like K Vijayendra Prasad of ‘ Baahubali’ fame and Oscar winner AR Rahman being part of this project. Made on a lavish budget of 130 crores as Thenandral films “100TH FILM”, Mersal justifies his name (stunning, glittering, astonishing) when it comes to cinematography and overall packaging. But did it satisfy expectations, it is a big ‘No’.

A few individuals related to medical profession getting kidnapped and killed in Chennai city. Investigation team led by DCP Ratnavel IPS arrests a doctor in connection with this series of crimes. On the superficial level, Mersal is a critic on the hospitals and business houses who make cut throat profits by charging patients. Well, this is an interesting subject to make a movie upon. But below this, the basic premise of Mersal is nothing new to KTown nor Indian cinema. Revenge for parental loss, brothers get separated at childhood only to reunite later are some of the most cliché elements you will find in tamil cinema.

Atlee’s first movie Rajarani is still one of my favourite movies. But as a director, from Rajarani to theri to Mersal, the career graph of director is on downswing. He seems to be run out of ideas. Many scenes in Mersal is a rehash of Shankar movies,his mentor. The death of a girl due to corrupt doctor reminded me of Indian, while the introduction scene of vijay is a straight ripoff from Shivaji. The accident sequence is a reboot of his own ‘Rajarani’. There was a scene in second half, where Vijay almost singlehandedly saving a village by demolishing a giantwheel. There was traces of Prabhas preventing a giant statue from falling down as in Baahubali.These are the most obvious ones while those who keenly watch can find the traces of Apoorvasahodarangal, Ramana and more than a dozen of other movies. And why such graphical detailing of surgeries and murders in the movie? It was quite disturbing to say the least. I am not a lover of such Eli-roth like gimmicks on personal level.

K VijayendraPrasad is a big name in TTown. His movies like Chathrapathi,Eega. Maghadheeraa and Baahubali not only rocked the boxoffice but took the career of the lead actors like Prabhas, Nani and Ram Charan to a different level. But that midas touch is somehow missing in Mersal. The screenplay is not only slow but also predictable. There were some memorable dialogues but it was spoiled by excessive Tamil regionalism aiming at the collections of B, C Centres in Tamil Nadu. Call me a racist, I don’t support it!

When it comes to acting, Vijay did a good job for most part of the movie keeping apart some emotional scenes in second half. Both Kajal and Samantha was wasted, while Nithya menen makes a mark.Sathyaraj and Sathyan also delivered good performances. SJ Suriya’s character was totally wasted. In spyder suriya scored above the protagonist through his weird ‘jokersque’ mannerisms. But in Mersal, his only fate is to get beaten up and act like a total idiot in front of hero.Mersal has the weakest antagonist in recent thalapathy movies.

Editing by Ruben is the worst part of this movie. Flashback sequences were too stretched. With a running time close to 3 hours, Mersal could have been lot better with bit trimming.

While AR Rahman music is his recent best, BGM fails to impress. It lacks an electrifying touch of Harris Jayarajs’ Thuppakki BGM or Anirudh’s “Kaththi” BGM. Moreover it has sinister overtones, which is not matching with the entire mood of the movie. Aalapporaan Tamizhaa is one of the most beautifully choreographed songs in tamil recently.

While first half is thoroughly engaging with a stunning though predictable interval twist, second half is a big let down. Climax was rushed and below par.Opening sequences and Preinterval portions are the best part of Mersal. Theatre sequence in second half was also impressive. By reading the news of vijay performing nearly 15 magic tricks, I expected a desi version of ‘Prestige’ or ‘ Now You See Me’. A hero taking out revenge through magic is an ubercool idea. Mersal not only missed such amazing opportunities in script and direction, but ended up as typical tamil mass potboiler. It was the same old wine packed in new bottle. Overall, Mersal even by liberal standards is an average one-time watchable affair at its best for its rich production values.

Rating : 2.5/5

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