Mankatha - A Review

Ajith's 50^th movie was a magnum opus. The expectation of the movie was soaring very high right from the beginning. After Rajini's blockbuster Enthiran, this was the most expected movie. The movie was loved by the Ajith fans and many entertainers alike. The critics still deemed it to be a mediocre entertainer.

The movie is about an investigation on the gambled money of the cricket matches in India where officer Prithviraj (Arjun) gets in charge of nabbing the culprits. He does manage to do so at lot of occasions. In a parallel track, a group of four men unlikely to be thieves including a henchman, a police, a bar owner and his hacker friend all set to steal away the 500 crore value of gambled money. In comes the suspended police officer Vinayak (Ajith) who joins the party and they are all group together to play the game.

The movie is a complete entertainer. Like all other entertainers, the movie defies logic at a lot of places. Quite dragging in the first half, the movie picks up quick pace in the second half and leads you quickly to the climax. However, the cliché moments and the predictable climax brings down the movie a little bit. It may have brought it down more than what they think. Certain scenes were a rip-off from several Hollywood movies. The background track is good although it reminds you of a lot of similar tracks. The songs put a brake to the pace of the movie and it is one of the major drawbacks of the movie. The twist in the climax will look unnecessary and strongly reminds of Saroja climax.

Ajith had gone bold for a lot of things in this movie. First, his salt and pepper look as an aging guy in the movie must be a huge trendsetter in Tamil movies. This reminds me again of Rajini's simple entry in Enthiran movie. Second, Ajith's appearance of a villain in his 50^th movie gets him special credit for his daring move. Arjun and the rest of the male cast have given a commendable performance. Though they were generously given screen space in an Ajith movie, it was completely dominated by Ajith. The actresses' roles have very little role and they appear for a limited time only.

The movie has become a blockbuster hit and Venkat Prabhu has done a good job in keeping the entertainer levels high but he will be challenged to come up with a different script next time. This movie may or may not be claimed as been saved by Ajith but if Ajith's records holds true for the next movie, he is well on his track to be the next big hero of Tamil Cinema.