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Mersal Review


Cast: Vijay, Kajal Agarwal, Samantha, Sj Suryah, Vadivelu
Music: AR Rahman
Direction: Atlee

“Nee patra veitha nerupu ondru, patri yeriya unnai kekum” is the dialogue Vijay tells before killing a person and we see montages of another Vijay. This shows that we are going to witness a revenge story. There is another Vijay receiving Humanitarian award. So before finding why he is taking revenge, the director  fools around with audience brilliantly. We see one Vijay receiving award another killing in magic show and audience are confused whether it’s one Vijay or two characters. The editor has intelligently created this doubt with his cuts.

Vijay gets arrested by Sathyaraj for a series of murder from medical background. Satyan plays as assistant to Satyaraj, who calls him ‘mani ah’ (I loved it as it reminded me of Amaidhi padai). The story revolves around Dr. Maran (Vijay) who is popularly called as Rs.5 doctor. Vijay as usual a bundle of energy, the intro scene is longest and he smokes on the screen after a very long time.

All through the first half, the scenes and songs with Kajal Agarwal and Samantha were hindrance to the narration. You hear a doctor saying “if brought 10 minutes before, we could have saved her” to the girl parents who lost her life in an accident. A scene in the interval block and later in the flashback has similar 10 minutes scenario like before. I felt a trim of two songs (roughly 10 minutes) could have avoided the “It’s too long” feel after the film.

The second half is where we get to know the backstory of Vijay’s revenge. I really loved the way  it was written. It was a perfect blend of revenge and social cause. This Vijay is called as Thalapathy and his son as Illaya Thalapathy. He is being killed by Sj Suryah, who plays a casual antagonist role. His weak characterization makes the pre-climax and climax scenes less interesting.

Vadivelu is the first person we see as the film starts, so I saved him up for the last. His screen space is less and with that limited minutes he was able to bring laugher. I loved the scene where a robber picks his purse and finds nothing. When questioned about it, he talks about digital economy. The dialogues, especially the speech to press which included GST, Gorakphur tragedy, etc. 

Verdict: Intelligent amalgamation of revenge and message.


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