Mankatha Movie Review

Movie: Mankatha
Star Cast: Ajith, Arjun, Trisha, Vaibhav Reddy, Lakshmi Rai, Andrea, Premji Amaren and Anjali.
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Story: Venkat Prabhu
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Banner: Sun Pictures, Cloud Nine Movies
Producer: Dhayanidhi Alagiri

Simple story:
The latest white-collar crime with blue-collar shades? Illegal betting on cricket matches by Indian and international communities like on the IPL matches. Who are the main characters?
Jayaprakash is the Chettiar who owns Golden Theatres in Mumbai, which forms the front for all his illegal businesses, like money laundering, gambling, etc. Also he isthe father of Sanjana, played by Trisha. There’s suspended cop Vinayak Mahadevan (Ajith), tainted S.I. Ganesh (Ashwin), Chettiar’s cronies Faizal (Arvind Akash) and Sumanth (Vaibhav), their friend Mahat (Mahat Raghavendra) and his geeky friend Prem (Premgi Amaren), supercop Asst. Commissioner Prithviraj (Arjun) and his loyal aide Kamal Ekambaram (Subbu). The ladies in the movie are Sanjana, Sona (Lakshmi Rai) and Suchitra (Anjali). Andreah plays a small role as Prithviraj’s wife.

Long story short:
Chettiar convinces Mumbai’s dons to use Golden Theatres to collect and divide the vast betting monies of IPL’s final matches. Ganesh, Sumanth, Mahat and Prem want a big chunk of it. Vinayak enters the scene with his cool scheme to take ALL of it away. Meanwhile, there’s a special police task force set up to close the net on these illegal betting activities, undercover. The money disappears. Chaos and mistrust happens. Mutiny in the ranks. Vinayak strives to be one step ahead of Chettiar, the cops and his own cronies. Big chunks of music, comedy and fight scenes. The plot thickens, the end happens in the series of twists and turns – and it’s interesting to watch the Whodunnit happen; and who’s REALLY who in the story.

Performance
Its Ajith all the way. He is simply amazing in the role of a dreaded baddie. With his usual looks sans makeup, he hogs all limelight. His one-liners brings laughter.  Arjun does the role of a cop once more. But he is charming here. Trisha and Lakshmi Rai does play their part well.  Andrea as Arjun’s wife and Anjali in the role of Vaibhav’s wife do minuscule roles.Vaibhav gets a meaty role and he utilise the opportunity.  Premji did what he did in Goa and Chennai 28.

Technicalities
It is technically well-made. Sakthi Saravanan’s lens captures the stunts well. It forms the backbone of the movie. Yuvan Shankar’s tunes add variety to it. His open song Mankatha…is celebrated in theatres. Director Venkat Prabhu seems to have done his part well.  He has laced thrills, spills and humour in right mix.

Big pluses:
First: I personally liked the fact that Venkat Prabhu chose to thumb his nose at fake morals-upholding business one sees in Tamil films. So what if the bad guys are good to look at or fun enough that we as the audience would cheer for them. So what if the supposed “hero” is a cad. So what if every character has big swathes of grey in it! It’s an entertainer, not a moral studies lecture and our job is to sit back, relax and enjoy the hours of entertainment.

Then: This is an out-and-out Ajith film. He’s greying around the temples, sports a scruffy stubble, doesn’t have a hero’s lightning-fast reflexes anymore and isn’t skinny or rippling with muscle. But boy, he’s got charisma and style. Pizzazz and panache. Looks and personality. Cool lines peppered with bleeped-out cuss words. The look, the role, the character and the mood suits him perfectly. You go, bro!

Next: Just because it’s an Ajith film doesn’t mean everyone else in the movie is simply chopped liver. Every single other character has weight and strength. The boys Premgi, Vaibhav, Arvind Akash, Ashwin and Mahat have done a superb job. Ashwin is especially impressive – tall, good-looking and a promising actor. Vaibhav is superb. Premgi is adorable. Mahat is one of those cute guys with a mean streak – perfect. Arvind is a perfect loyal goonda for the baddie. Arjun is on par with Ajith in heroism, the yin to Ajith’s yang. Subbu is impressive as the upright police officer.

More: Nice twists and turns and fight scenes. It’s good to see Ajith getting beaten up a little here and there too – it’s more realistic, Hollywood-ian and one savours Ajith’s fiery return fire even more! Of course, comedy is a definite must in a Venkat Prabhu movie and everyone contributes to the laugh-factor.

Some downers:
Tedious in places. The movie itself is 3 hours long. There are a few CG and gimmicks spots that can be removed altogether! A couple of songs are kickass, but others slip under the “Superb” notch. In fact, there’s a song with some bewildering background CG and picturisation that can be removed altogether! Some small but glaring loopholes here and there (attention to detail has long been a Tamil-movie failing), laborious fights that could have been tightened around the belt and such. Perhaps the biggest let-down was that the heroines were close to being completely wasted. They were not completely redundant, but they were not utilised to their maximum capacity either. Trisha is very pretty and has a unique fashion sense that’s bound to become a college-girl fad and she’s done the best she can within her character’s framework, but Lakshmi Rai perhaps has the most colourful role.

An entertaining end to an entertaining movie: The end credits are un-missable so don’t get up and walk away thinking the movie’s over! Hilarious and uber cool!

Verdict:
“Thala-lai” vechittu kondaadalaam – a MUST watch for Thala… and his able boys! Good going, director Venkat Prabhu!

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