Mahaan Review: A lot of potential interesting ideas were let down by superficial writing

Cast: Vikram, Dhruv Vikram, Simran, Bobby Simha, Sanath
Music: Santhosh Narayanan
Direction: Karthik Subbaraj

Gandhi Mahaan (Chiyaan Vikram) is a school teacher living a simple, scheduled life following Gandhian principles just like his ancestors. His grandfather was instrumental in the ‘Liquor Ban protests’ in Tamil Nadu. His father continued the protests, wanted Gandhi to take it further and live a life like Gandhi Mahatma. While he is leading this principled life, at his 40^th birthday he realizes how his life is boring through a beggar. A life changing decision happens just like that.

The very next day, he lives his life without any rules. He dresses sharply with quirky shirts, drinks alcohol and gambles which leads to his wife- Nachi (Simran) and son- Dada (Dhruv Vikram) abandoning him. At this point, instead of feeling sad for his state, I was stoic. The biggest issue with this film was that the writing doesn’t explore the emotions in depth. The idea of conflict between the father and son is interesting and so is the idea of conflict between the three friends.

Gandhi meets his childhood friends, Sathyavan (Bobby Simha) and Gnanam (Vettai Muthukumar), in his 40s and build an alcohol empire. The relationship equation that they shared as kids is reflected even in their 40s. Their relationship arc travels similar to the gambling game that they played as kids. It’s really an interesting angle. Dada becomes a police and tries to shut down his father’s alcohol empire as a revenge. This too is interesting. But the writing superficially explores both these plotlines which makes the film underwhelming.

Generally in Tamil cinema, the good writing would be lost in translation to the screen. But with Karthik Subbaraj as director translating to the screen isn’t a problem. The treatment of the sequence of the growth of Gandhi & Sathyavan’s alcohol business and their friendship has huge Martin Scorcese’s influence. The fight sequence where Gandhi saves Rocky (Sanath) is absolutely brilliant. Direction, performances by Vikram, Bobby Simha, Sanath and cinematography tries hard to elevate the poor writing. But it wasn’t enough.

It’s quite disheartening to see the decline in Karthik Subbaraj’s writing. The writing in his initial films, Pizza, Jigarthanda, Iraivi was phenomenal. His direction skills are still amazing, if only he collaborates with writers and gives us great films. For now, Mahaan was a disappointment.

Verdict: A lot of potential interesting ideas were let down by superficial writing