Mamannan Review (2023)

Political thought: Anyone thinking It is some badass move by Udhay to stare in a film which supposedly gives statements against stuff which has happened even during DMK's period. Ore Oru Vishyam Solika Virumburen. In the film Kodi, Dhanush's character submits documents for the arrest of his own party member for his wrongdoing and wins public support. Make the connection yourselves.

This is one of those reviews where the negatives need to be straightaway cleared. The entire Second Half needs to be deleted. As simple as that. What made Mari Selvaraj think that such conventional as hell proceedings should succeed one of the most brilliantly written, directed, acted and executed first halfs of all films in this year.

We get some random fights, news channel coverages, pre 2010 Villain putting roadblocks to hero’s struggle stuff which succeed 100% in not engaging you. And even the roadblocks bought in are 100% known and are also overcome by again known tropes though the aspect of students coming in, eventhough cheesy, is good writing.

Next stop is Fahadh Faasil. As KaKi's talkies said, hopefully he doesn’t become the current generation Prakash Raj. FaFa sells the hell out of such a bullshit, poorly written one note villain communicating with singular expressions of his disgust towards the lower caste people.

Next and final stop, Keerthy Suresh. Anga suthi Inga suthi, Kashta Pattu, Keerthy has again landed a brilliantly written and layered character whose sole purpose is to stand aside or behind the hero. The only dirt in the shining first half are the portions involving Keerthy and the second half only gets irritating with her presence.

So yeah, taken the negatives out of our way.

Surpisingly, despite the DMK’s atheism, the Gods have shined through Maari Selvaraj and Given the audiences a sweet surprise of having Udhayanidhi Stalin act. No joke. The man actually does do a really great job of acting in the film and you geniuinely feel for him and his anger and when he shouts in anger or hits in fury, you are with him in his feelings.

Ably supported, unfortunately, by Vadivelu, who makes a ferocious turn as the titular Mamannan, a man whose character suffers from an inferiority complex he himself is unaware of and continues with it till the pre interval portions when a ferociously written and edited event happens (which I don’t want to spoil basically) that shows us the dual nature of Mannan himself, who despite preaching an important ideal is himself unable to follow it.

Unfortunate is the fact that the film somehow relegates him to the background of Adhiveeran, played by Udhay, his son eventhough it is Mannan who must have been the lead.

But however look at the flashback portions shot in stunning Black And White, evoking German Expressionism to a degree in one haunting shot where a single small light illuminates Mannan and a supposedly sleeping Adhi and when Mannan suddenly wakes up, he is surrounded by darkness, away from Veeran the only ray of light in his life or another scene which has an emotionally gut wrenching incident and the reaction to it given By Vadivelu almost moving you to tears.

The Black and White works as a brilliant way to highlight the outwards casteism of the olden days where the insults where outward, the hatred outward and clear; the caste divide clear when contrasted with the complex present day, shot in colour, showcasing a much more complex caste discrimination attitude. Or the scenes when Veeran escapes from the said gut wrenching incident in extreme wides and extreme highes showcasing the need for such growth and freedom needed for someone to escape that.

Or the beautiful use of mirrors to convey the inherent mindset of the high caste politicians. The way Mannan is captured in extreme wide to vent his sadness over his inability to avenge the wrong doing to his son where a man is not allowed to even cry while being surrounded by the coercive upper caste members.

I believe it is important for filmmakers to learn that rather than do Shit characters like Leela who is apparently a Communist as said by KS in interviews, they may do away itself with heroines. However one good lady character eventhough a minor one is FaFa’s characters wife Jyoti, who has a brilliant scene wherein she defies her own husband irrespective of the outcome. The boldness of her suggests many things which could have been explored a bit more.

And finally the interval block which post the main event has a certain concluding arc wherein Veeran smashing a car is match cut brilliantly with Rathnavelu (FaFa), throwing and breaking the glass of his own photo falling to the ground, symbolising the attack on the car is a personal attack on him or how the personal attack is something which his Casteist brain equates to being thrown in the mud. There could probably be said something about the whole pigs and dogs thing but they are pretty straightforward, but something to be said is how cute a little pig looks man.

Mamannan would have been the best film of this year for me only if it didn’t have the baggage of the idiotic and downright boring 2nd half.