Mersal (2017)

After the Vivegam review, I just have to do one on Mersal. Also I badly need a comeback. So here goes!  

      

       I don't want to go into the story because there is a small suspense tied to it. All I can say is that Atlee, the director, has been 'inspired' by a certain old Kamal Hassan film. But one has to admit that the story is quite engaging. Atlee seems to do things Shankar-size with elaborate sets for a simple song and a number of big names acting in small roles. In other words, Vijay got lucky for the umpteenth time. As far as the music is concerned, somebody seems to have done a lazy job. All the songs have two parts - the good part and the part where the lyrics is clear. The only song where these two parts coincide is Alaporan Tamilan. The other songs are pretty much 'just okay' apart from being vaguely catchy.

            There are huge loopholes in the story that I would usually pick on, but as there are many things I liked in this movie, I am willing to let them go. I very much appreciate the wonderful points highlighted in the movie regarding medicine being the most profitable business and about cesarean becoming commonplace.  It is great that Vijay has sort of started this trend of ending his movies with a comment on a social issue.

    But then there is the thing about heroines. On this issue, I am not willing to make any compromise. Nitya Menon is the only heroine who has any relevance to the storyline. Samantha and Kajal Aggarwal are totally unnecessary. The day, big directors of Tamil Cinema realize that they don't need a heroine for each protagonist to ensure the success of their film, will be the day I'll actually start liking Tamil movies. This is where movies like Vikram Vedha and Maragadha Nanayam score over these blindly conventional movies by directors like Shankar, Atlee and basically everybody else with a few exceptions.

 And hence this great movie loses a few points. So the score is

7/10 - Good