Mersal - A modern day Apoorva Sagodharargal

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Vijay's Mersal hit the theaters last week and I had the opportunity to catch a show at the local theater on this weekend.  I must say I have mixed feelings about this movie. Now I know this is not what my Tamil friends would like to hear about their superstar but in my honest opinion Vijay can do a lot better than the movies he's been doing recently.

Vijay has the caliber and capacity to carry a movie on his shoulders by the sheer intensity of his performance, but unfortunately his selection of movies has been letting him down these past few years. For the life of me I cannot explain his choices in Bairavaa, Theri and the less said about Puli the better. Gimme the Vijay from Thuppakki or Kaththi

Atlee has a penchant for remaking old movies in newer bottling. All his previous movies have been heavily inspired by older classics and Mersal is not much different. It borrows heavily from Apoorva Sagodharargal.  Vijay plays a triple role similar to Kamal Hassan in the original. What differs in this movie is that the role of the father character - Thalapathy has been expounded and given a lot more relevance with a bulk of the 2nd half dedicated to the flashback in comparison with Apoorva Sagodharargal where the flashback was narrated in the opening half within 10-15 minutes of the movie opening.

While Apoorva Sagodharargal had a tighter plot and the different threads in the story came together at the end, in Mersal the plot has a lot of holes. There are too many things left unsaid and I as a viewer was left wondering how the story progressed from point A to point B. Also some of the plot points were a bit hard for me to digest.

If you are a Vijay fan or planning to watch Mersal over the weekend I would implore you to not click on the spoilers button below.

• Vijay plays a double role in the movie, the most convenient way to play this would have been as twins, but for some confounded reason Atlee deemed that the double role should be of siblings 5 years apart. WTF, how are you supposed to pull off a identical twin look as siblings? Boggles the mind
• Every strong hero needs a equal and strong villain, sadly SJ Surya's character is not etched correct. Yes he's money minded and greedy but if greed were the only reason for villifying a person then the entire world would be doomed. There is not enough justification to set him up as baddie, even the way he hemms and haws through killing Thalapathy does not augment for it. As the villain says "Its not personal, its just business"
• The movie shows the siblings separated by the death of the their family with the eldest left in a truck after being hit in the head by a bottle and losing his memory. But it does not show anything about how he ended up with his foster mother or what motivated him to become a doctor. He grows up knowing nothing about his family but he still espouses everything his parents wanted from him unknowingly, irony much?
• Now the younger sibling was shown as left for dead and somehow miraculously returned to life after turning blue. Well let me take that with a bag of salt for that is not the way how medicine, life or science works but for the sake of posterity lets say it did. The question remains: how did Vadivelu know where to find the boy, he did not see the baby being carried away, he was busy watching Thalapathy getting killed. 
• Also what stopped the younger Vijay from reaching out to his elder sibling once he found him? He was clearly aware of him as he took every opportunity to disguise himself as his elder sibling and carry out revenge.
• Lastly howcome the younger Vijay who never learned any medicine was able to come up with gruesome medical revenges on the wrong doers with the precision and finesse of a surgeon. 

These sort of plot holes are big enough that you can fly a Boeing 747 through it and still have enough space left over for a truck or two to follow

Now that I have got that out of the way, lets look at the good and the bad in the movie.

Good:

1. Vijay - of course Vijay is the whole and soul of this movie. While the double role needed refinement, Vijay is at his stylish best dancing, fighting and emoting with elan. He's firing on all cylinders and he nails his best performance as Thalapathy. It has been long rumoured that Vijay has political ambitions and in this movie he uses every frame and moment to set the course if he is so inclined. The comparison with MGR is particularly on the nose. 😀
2. Vadivelu - The comedian has been missing from the silver screen for some time now and he makes his return with aplomb. The actor pulls no punches taking the mickey out of digital India and it is one of the best scenes in the movie. I guarantee you a laugh.
3. Social Issue - The movie sheds a light on how medicine is considered a business in India.Sadly it is a truth. Doctors are inconsiderate, government medical systems are archaic and private hospitals are fiefdoms run to make money every which way they can. Where is the nobility in the profession?

Bad:

1. Screenplay - this is my pet peeve with almost all movies made in India. The screenplay/story has almost no sense of tangibility. Time spent on improving the story is spent almost frivolously on inane stuff, romance and songs. A tighter flashback and some trimming of the romantic characters would have allowed for a greater depth in the story elevating the movie
2. Music - What the hell is wrong with ARR? He seems like a shadow of his past. In the recent years the music from ARR seems almost heart breakingly pedestrian. It is hard to reconcile the current ARR with the maestro who gave foot tapping numbers with such diligent frequency. Damn even his Airtel jingle was memorable and foot tapping compared to the recent songs. I cannot even remember how the music was in the movie, even the hyped Aalaporaan Thamizhan did not stay with me. ☹️
3. Direction - Atlee has delivered a hit with this movie, but IMO the original Apoorva Sagodharargal was a much better movie compared to this one.
4. U/A rating - The movie was deemed U/A by the censor board, I very humbly choose to disagree, the movie shows people being killed, gored and accidents in hyper slow motion with blood flowing liberally. To top it off we also have a C section shown in full glory with a decapitation. There is too much of bloodfest in the movie for it to be seen by kids especially those younger than 15 years. I felt uncomfortably like I was somehow transported to a SAW movie. It should have been rated 17 and above. We need more categories in our censor certification.

Vijay & Vadivelu are the only saving grace in an otherwise forgettable outing. If you get a itching to watch Mersal do one better and watch Apoorva Sagodharargal