Mahaan Movie Review: Vikram's Excellent Performance Makes Gandhiwadi Crime-Thriller A Good Watch Despite Of Excess Violence

Exactly a decade ago, Karthik Subbaraj debuted with the fantastic thriller Pizza (2012). He continued making watchable films, but two of his films caught more attention – Jigarthanda (2014) and Petta (2019). None of his previous works in the crime genre, including his most recent film, Jagame Thandiram (2021), have impressed me as much as Pizza (which is more of a horror). Now, he is back again with another crime thriller, and this time it's somewhat good. Mahaan is a film that wants to be unique as it attempts to explore the violent world of crime, politics, and liquor syndicates while its main character is influenced by Gandhi-The Mahaan. The film takes too long to get to the point, but once it reaches the point, it starts getting more and more interesting. The film is about a school teacher, Gandhi Mahaan, who gets dumped by his wife for drinking liquor one night. Then he decides to leave his sophisticated life behind and enters into the liquor syndicate with the ambition of having his kingdom over there. Eventually, he becomes a big thing but is interrupted by a freaking violent cop who happens to be his own son, Dadabhai Naoroji. The face off between father and son sets out to kill many people around them, and whose plans work at the end is the only big suspense for you there.The film heavily relies on Chiyaan Vikram's performance, and he does not disappoint. His transformation from a decent school teacher to a bootlegger is the best thing you'll see in the film. Dhruv Vikram surprises us, and in a big way! He appears at the intermission point and yet has made his presence noticed. His confidence is boosted in every single scene with Vikram. That intermission point, his evil laugh, attitude, dancing, everything, he just nailed it. Bobby Simha, Sanath, and Vettai Muthukumar provide enough support, whereas Simran does fine with regular scenes, except for one superb scene in the beginning. Mahaan lacks the pacing in the first half, but that's still okay. However, I doubt whether anyone will be interested in the repeat viewing or not. All thanks to the boring first half. Wait, we have a contrary case here. The second half is just explosive enough to make you forget the past boredom. The ending has enough thrills and twists to keep you interested. Even the dialogues help in the conclusive part, and you are going to love it when Vikram says it.Karthik Subbaraj takes long enough to conclude his points, but was it really necessary? One can argue about that. Rest assured, he has made a better film than Jagame Thandiram. However, it is not overly impressive. Mahaan makes a perfect one-time watch, and if you have moderate expectations, then you're going to enjoy it for sure. Overall, it's a little nasty and slow, but it never loses its tempo. The momentum is not constant there, but it remains steady. The Gandhi theory may work for you or it may not, but other things such as Vikram and Dhruv's performances and the exciting finish definitely make it worth watching.