Mahaan (2022)

Mahaan (2022)

Written and Directed by: Karthik Subbaraj
Starring: Vikram, Dhruv Vikram, Bobby Simha
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Spoilers Alert. I missed the Karthik Subbaraj aesthetics & swag in Jagame Thandiram. The Karthik Subbaraj fan in me is satisfied with Mahaan, just because of the scope of the film. We see a clean character arc of Mahaan in the first half - we see a man who's barely tasting alcohol in the beginning, and from there we see a liquor tycoon by the end of the first half. It's a proper breaking bad sort of an arc. I was enjoying how the film was flowing - with Santhosh Narayan's music and snappy editing. Though the core conflict of the film hadn't started yet, I liked how the film was progressing mostly because of the slow arc of Mahaan's character. And by the interval we have a quintessential Karthik Subbaraj twist, such a beautiful point that was. I was completely blown. This interval stretch made me feel so bad for the film not releasing in the theatres.

The second half was playing with our emotions so much. Once, it makes us take Mahaan's side, and once it makes us take Dada's side - just the way it keeps juggling like that, the film seems complex. I was reminded of the Jigarthanda interval by the way Dada kills Rocky. Suddenly, the stakes go so high. By the end, it was becoming too much of a cat and mouse thing, and it felt like they deadlocked themselves where they can't show either of them killing the other. I loved the stretch where Mahaan kills Sathyan - usually such high drama sequences become irritating to watch if they aren't written and shot well. After that, when Dada behaves the way he does, that's when I felt like the film was exploring complexity so much. But after that whatever Mahaan does, didn't feel as satisfying. Apart from the feeling that the film didn't have a proper closure, I enjoyed the film thoroughly.