GOOD VS EVIL ('Mankatha' movie analysis)

Stylish heist movies are quite prevalent in hollywood but its quite a rarity to find such themes in Kollywood. And that too a mass hero trying to do a heist with a small gang is indeed a rarity, as usually it would be a one man show like Kamal Hassan's 'Guru' or Arjun's 'Gentleman' or Ajith's own 'Villain' but in all these movies there is one more thing which is common, The protagonist will have a tragic backstory and a social responsibility behind his action. But the latest Venkat Prabhu directed flick – 'Mankatha' is here to change the game. Its different, the hero doesn't want to rob for society and he doesn't have a tragic backstory, he just loves money and wants to settle down rich, its as simple as that.

I have been thinking and thinking on how to look at this movie, its a below average film which tries too hard to be western by having too many twists and loose ends which gets filled up when the last twist is revealed. But in the process of making the movie loaded with plot twists the director and screenplay writer loose their focus in the first half only to redeem a wee bit in the second. The so called brilliant Heist itself looks too artificial and unbelievable(the right word would be Stupid, but I dont want to use such harsh words in this analysis, so...) , how come such a big crane and the switch of the container with a magnet (which is bound to make at-least a thud noise) go unnoticed by the transporters who are just a few steps away? Ok, people do tell me not to ask for logic in tamil movies, I just want to ask them – Why shouldn't I? There are few unbelievable moments in Ocean series heist too but they have researched with scientists and professionals to make sure the entire heist will make you sit up and clap for its brilliance. Come on Venkat, we do believe that you can do better than this.

Apart from the insignificant roles for Trisha, Lakshmi Rai and Anjali and no character sketch for any other character except Ajith and Premji, there is one more thing which I wanted to discuss about. Has the tamil movie viewers evolved this much for taking such a negative themed movie in the right spirit? That too when its acted by a mass hero like 'Ajith'? Ajith looks good, has acted brilliantly, has enjoyed his role but in the film his character is too grey to go unnoticed. Hero's have indeed showed grey shades before but in the end justice prevails or the good wins but Venkat Prabhu has made a movie where evil wins over good which is just like how bollywood's underrated remake of 'Face off' - 'Aks' ends. Aks did face huge controversy and went on to be banned in few places too. But Amitabh at that time had far less fan following and Manoj had almost to none. But Ajith is different, he is a phenomenon – he gets the best opening next only to Rajnikanth in Tamil Nadu. Ajith should be lauded for such an experiment but can a tamil hero who has such mad and blind following try to propagate crime? At-least if he falls at the end it would have been a little better but he doesn't.

Unfortunately in tamil cinema with such blind fans a mass hero just shouldn't experiment with good and evil this much. What do you think? Do comment...