Mark Antony Review (2023)

Mark Antony, I believe, best showcases the Karthik Subbaraj Inverse problem: wherein KS has issues with his writing while his direction, cinematography etc. is superb, here it is the direction and cinematography at least in terms of the blocking along with the editing which damages the interest that the writing continuously brings.

The story follows Mark, a mechanic played by Vishal, who is brought up by Jackie Pandian, along with Jackie’s own son, Madhan, the latter 2 played by a terrifically ferocious SJ Suryah ( the title cards call him “Nadippu Arakkan”). Mark is forced to reconsider his own understanding of his father, Antony, a feared gangster who died 20 yrs. ago, and whose death Jackie wishes to avenge.

Mark Antony can be defined as the definitive masala genre film, something which had been so popular pre 2010s but then gradually slowed down, only with directors like Hari keeping it up. We have all the required masala tropes: a son who doesn’t know his father/misunderstands his father, emotional bonding with mother, a villain who doesn’t like his son, “the breakup song”, a heroine whose relevance is what pushes the film into story mode, a villain who feels “lower” than his friend etc. all make up the hyper fast edited 1st half in a level which is consistently over the top, but Adhik’s skill as a director works really well here. He maintains the same tone of over the top acting and hilarity plus punch dialogues to consistently drive through the screenplay.

The writing also has a great cultural rootedness. We see Antony being possessed by a god, we see people going to see MGR films and we also learn that Mark is a Tom and Jerry Fan. All of this does a great job of establishing the exact time period and the way Adhik uses these elements to create masala moments is absolutely brilliant.

Where Adhik’s shortcomings take place is his blocking and the “Iam going to die in 1hr” speed of editing, especially in some of the opening portions, which prevents us from feeling the impact of that moment. For example could be a scene where Sunil’s character Ekambaram is blasted in a petrol bunk. It’s supposed to feel like the “Dodamma” scene in KGF2 but the scene plays out without any build up nor is it slow enough to let us take in the moments.

But whatever SJ Suryah does, it all covers up for the films faults. The man who is a natural OTT person, goes Full Mental OTT here where even someone like Vishal goes overboard. The way in which the present day Madhan talks with the past Jackie is an example of that, and the sequences between those conversations are also filled with the kind of manic energy that SJ Suryah himself brings to the table. The little reactions he gives are very on point and extremely hilarious. He is matched by Vishal, at least in terms of the energy, only in the climax where he turns his own meter to something higher. Vishal is decent as the dad but as the son Mark he is somewhat middling and his dialogue delivery also seemed quite awkward.

While formally, Mark Antony is emblematic of the recent Tik Tok style fast cut films, its writing is a lot greater than all those and that’s what makes it enjoyable.