The headline says it all. In 'Mankatha', Ajith pulls it off with his impeccable style and excellent performance, which is aptly supported by a racy script and brilliant execution by director Venkat Prabhu and his team.
If cricket was the USP of 'Chennai 28', the director's first film, 'Mankatha' is also based on the sport but with a difference. It is all about betting, money and the men behind it.
Ajith has appropriately chosen to do 'Mankatha' as his 50th film. It is a movie that has everything his fans would want. He shakes his legs vigorously, evokes laughter, does pulsating stunt sequences and utters catchy one-liners (with some of them going mute).
The first-half belongs to Venkat Prabhu where he shows sparks of 'Saroja' and 'Goa', while the latter part is totally dominated by Ajith. As a merciless baddie behind money, Ajith oozes venom in his eyes. His body language and dialogue delivery compliments it very much. Though the movie has over a dozen characters, it's Ajith all the way. With his remarkable screen presence, he is at his coolest best.
Coming to the story, 'Mankatha' revolves around a suspended cop Vinayak Mahadevan (Ajith) in Maharashtra police. He leads a happy life with his lover Sanjana (Trisha), daughter of an influential local goon Arumuga Chettiyar (Jayaprakash).
Vinayak is a man who dares to do anything for money. But a fun-loving person, he lives his life in his own way.
A suicide by a police officer investigating the betting mafia involved in Indian Premier League (IPL) hogs headlines. Assistant Commissioner of Police Prithvi (Arjun) takes charge to end betting scandal in the sport.
Meanwhile, Arumuga Chettiyar comes to know that a sum of Rs 500 crore betting money for the finals of the IPL is coming to Mumbai. He uses his nexus with underworld in Mumbai and tries to route it through his recreation centre.
Sumanth (Vaibhav) is Arumuga Chettiyar's protege. He hatches a conspiracy to take away the money in the company of a police officer Ganesh (Ashwin). They are joined by Mahanth (Mahanth), who runs a bar in Mumbai and Prem (Premgi Amaran), a fun-loving IIT pass out.
Coming to know of their plans, Vinayak steps in. He promises to help the team members and divide the booty between them. They even succeed in taking away the money and decide to wait for an appropriate time to share the fortune.
In the meantime, a shocked Arumuga Chettiyar begins his hunt for the
treasure and every move of him is closely followed by Prithvi. All hell breaks
loose from here.
Cheers to Ajith. The man after a long gap gets a role where he can perform with variety (Watch out for the scene where he demands Arjun to finish off Vaibhav). He is at his best and his salt and pepper look is catchy and attractive.
As a suave cop, a dreaded don or a adorable lover, he leaves his charm on screen. His uttering of one-liners to Arjun evokes applause. His imitating Premgi in few scenes brings the roof down in laughter.
Arjun lives up to his Action King tag. He adds variety on screen and is cool and consummate as a police officer.
Trisha appears in a few scenes besides a song and disappears. Andrea as Arjun's wife, Lakahmi Rai as call girl and Anjali in the role of Vaibhav's wife play blink-and-miss roles. Jayaprakash gets to play a decent part in the film. At places he reminds one of Kamal Haasan's role in 'Nayakan'. Vaibhav gets a meaty character and he utilises the opportunity.
Both Ganesh and Mahanth are tailor-made for the roles, while Premgi is at his best in the film. He takes off from where he left in 'Goa'. At ease in coming out with comical one-liners, his admiration for Ajith is visible on screen.
Watch out for good cinematography in such an action-packed film. Sakthi Saravanan has given a fresh colour to it. It's Yuvan Shankar Raja's mass tunes that elevates the mood. Accompanied by Karthik Raja, Bhavadharini and Premgi Amaran, he has shown difference in background score too (especially in the godown-fight scene in the second half)..
While editing by Praveen K L and N B Srikanth makes the film racy (doubly so in the second half), Vasuki Baskar's costumes fit well the 'Thala' and others. Stunts (courtesy Selva) are another highlight of 'Mankatha'
Give due credit to Venkat Prabhu, the director who seems to have given a film that sits well on Ajith. He understood Ajith's strength and played it well. Who said he can only direct laughathons? With 'Mankatha', he has graduated to go higher places.
On the whole, it's job well done by Venkat Prabhu, producer Dhayanidhi Alagiri and other members of the team. If at all there is a minus, it is the lengthy first half.
BEHINDWOODS MANKATHA MOVIE REVIEW
Starring:
Ajith Kumar, Trisha, Arjun, Andrea Jeremiah, Lakshmi
Rai, Premji, Anjali, Vaibhav
Direction:
Venkat Prabhu
Music:
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Production:
Dayanidhi Azhagiri, (Cloud Nine Movies)
Mankatha after having played 'uLLe veLiye' for quite a while, strikes finally, AND in style! For his golden jubilee flick, Ajith, the 'golden hearted' lad of Tamil cinema teams up with the uber cool Venkat Prabhu and his gang of boys and the effect is exciting to say the least.
When you have the handsome Vinayak Mahadev (Ajith) team himself with a few boys on his 'Money' mission and when there is cop Prithviraj (Arjun) who is hot on their trail, what you get is a heady cocktail of events that suck you into the premise of Mankatha albeit a bit late.
For Venkat Prabhu, it is a huge responsibility
to fuse in his irreverent style of film making
with the sensibilities of Ajith's image
and the director has not compromised one bit
here and kudos to him for this. Mankatha unfolds languorously and takes its
own sweet time to establish the premise when
the major portion of the first half keep flitting
in between many tracks with three romances.
When you start wondering whether
the movie is going anywhere at all, it shifts
to third gear to be only brought down by a
song or two. And when the director finally
decides to cast everything else away and focus
on the central plot, the story takes an interesting
detour and mutates into a Grand Prix race
all the way from the second half with Venkat
Prabhu reserving all his aces for the climax.
There is always no dearth of humor in Venkat
Prabhu's films but in Mankatha it is
a bit muted when compared to his other works.
Mostly the comic lines are at the expense
of Premji and the best example is his analogy
with Youtube sensation Sam Anderson. Dialogues
like - "Light pottutu daan otta koodadhu,
lightaa pottutu ottalam" bring cheers.
And the typical Venkat Prabhu's conceptualization
of humor in a serious situation still finds
place but they are few.
When we talk about performances, Ajith is
unarguably the pice de rsistance
of Mankatha and it is his uninhibited performance
that captivates the audience. For him, it
is a superb knock on the field well laid out
by Venkat Prabhu. He simply sizzles in his
action shots and his cute expressions in dance
sequences are a revelation. The consistency
in Ajith's characterization is a major
plus for the film. Next to Ajith, it is action
king Arjun who has held on to his fort. Premji,
Jaiprakash, Vaibhav, Mahat and Ashwin round
out the supporting cast who blend in with
ease with the story. As it is a men's
film, women have nothing to do in Mankatha. On the downside, the number of gun battles
and their lengths may tire you a bit and the
vital heist which should have been extremely
powerful lacks the fizz. Songs are not a value
addition to the film at all and are mostly
road blocks sans 'Machi open the bottle'. Success of a cinematographer and editor lies
in their unobtrusive work in sync with the
subject, and cinematographer Sakthi Saravanan
and editors Praveen & Srikanth score in
this department. "Unakku ide maadiri 500 pondaati kedappa
daa." - with this dialogue, Ajith completes
his mission of breaking all the syntax of
a Tamil hero and has gone on to prove that
an actor should strictly treat the script
as the hero. Take a bow Ajith! It is a memorable
50th film indeed. Verdict: Ajith's 'Golden' gamble
with Venkat that has paid off !
Direction: Venkat Prabhu
Star-casts: Ajith Kumar, Arjun, Trisha, Lakshmi Rai, Vaibhav, Aravind Akash, Anjali, Andrea Jeremiah and others
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
There have been yet more reasons why the film was hitting headlines persistently. Changing hands of production as almost all the top production houses eyed on the project. The other factors were the team and the ensemble star-casts.
The film opens with police officer Vinayak suspended for saving Faizal from bunch of cops. Then there is a serious issue running down the lane of Mumbai about bookies and match fixing and CBI officials led by Prithviraj on the track behind them. Meanwhile a group of youngsters ' Sumanth, Ganesh, Mahat, and Prem hatches a plan to loot the betting money of Rs.500 Crores. They have a perfect plan, but things take a turn when Vinayak joins them.
'Money, Money, Money, Money''.' it's everything for him.
Well during the point of intermission, the audiences might feel quite puzzled over the protagonist revealing all his plans about finishing the game. But the 'Game isn't over till the final credits'. In fact, you'll have no clue till the last 60secs of the film on what's going on.
Ajith Kumar is awesome and his modulation in voice and utilization of Venkat Prabhu's comedy sense. We had never seen Ajith Kumar using so much of profane language.
Don't presume this film to be only for Ajith Kumar for each and every character in the film sways on with equal importance. Action King Arjun gets a meaty role much equivalent to Ajith Kumar and is over the top with his performance. Trisha doesn't get a lengthy role, but looks beautiful and pretty charming. Lakshmi Rai doesn't appear in more than 5 scenes. Premji Amaran scores well with his 'Black Humour'. Mahat and Ganesh are okay with performances. Vaibhav does justice to his role and he emotes exactly to the surpassing degrees. Anjali is merely used for romantic portions and so is Andrea.
The greatest highlight of the film is last 40mins of the film that will make you laugh, move you to the edge of seats and finally walk out of theatres with invigorated spirits. Don't miss the behind the scenes bloopers during final credit that will throw huge surprise to the audiences. The first half is filled with the establishment of characters while the second half is a roller coaster ride with lots of twists and turns.
Technically, it's Yuvan Shankar Raja rocking and rocking to the core. The songs are at its best with 'Machi Open the Bottle' turning to be the cherry pick of the album and so is title song 'Vilayaadu Mankatha'.
Cinematography by Sakthi Saravanan is top-notching and editing works by Praveen is crisp. Watch out for the scenes where we Ajith Kumar working inside his house, the multiple frame is spellbinding.
Thanks to Venkat Prabhu for making Ajith Kumar's 50th film so special. Our final verdict ' 'Mankatha' is the best of all 50 movies in Ajith Kumar's career.
The film isn't just for Ajith Kumar fans, but for the universal audiences.
Verdict: Mankatha ' A Tribute to Ajith Kumar's career
Super Good Movies Mankatha Movie Review
Game on in Ajith style
It's Ajith's 50th venture. What more it s directed by Venkat Prabhu with betting scandal in cricket as its theme. A huge star cast including Trisha, Arjun among others raised all expectations. Thats Mankatha. Lets check out the review.
Story
Mankatha is a racy and adrenaline-rushing story of a Maharshatra police officer Vinayak Mahadevan (Ajith) who is suspended for helping a smuggler to escape from police encounter. He starts leading life in his own way. He falls for Sanjana (Trisha), daughter of an influential local goon Arumuga Chettiyar (Jayaprakash) in Mumbai. A tough cop Prithvi (Arjun) takes charge to end betting scandal in IPL cricket in Mumbai. Arumuga uses his links with dons in Mumbai tries to route through his old theatre , a cash of over Rs 500 crore to be used in betting.
Sumanth (Vaibhav), a goon working for Arumuga Chettiyarplans to take away the booty with the help of his friends Ganesh (Ashwin), Mahanth (Mahanth), who owns a bar in Mumbai and Prem (Premji), a IIT graduate. Vinayak joins the race. he promises to help them and divide it between them. Trouble starts after they take away the acsh. Both Arumugha Chettiyar and police are now on their heels. Meanwhile, Mahanth and Prem escape with the cash. It all upto Vinayak now. The battle shifts between him and Prithvi.
Performance
Its Ajith all the way. He is simply amazing in the role of a dreaded baddie. With his usual looks sans makeup, he hogs all limelight. His one-liners brings laughter. Arjun does the role of a cop once more. But he is charming here. Trisha and Lakshmi Rai does play their part well. Andrea as Arjun's wife and Anjali in the role of Vaibhav's wife do minuscule roles.Vaibhav gets a meaty role and he utilise the opportunity. Premji did what he did in Goa and Chennai 28.
Technicalities
It is technically well-made. Sakthi Saravanan's lens captures the stunts well. It forms the backbone of the movie. Yuvan Shankar's tunes add variety to it. His open song Mankatha...is celebrated in theatres. Director Venkat Prabhu seems to have done his part well. He has laced thrills, spills and humour in right mix.
Analysis
Mankatha is boyish film. It is all racy and rivetting.The first half is light and simple. The game really begins in latter part. With Venkat Prabhu and Ajith giving their best, Mankatha rocks all time.
Mark - 3.5/5
Access Kollywood Mankatha Movie Review
Starring :
Ajith, Arjun, Trisha, Premji Amaren, Vaibhav, Mahat Raghavendra, Ashwin Kakumanu, Andrea Jeremiah, Anjali, Lakshmi Rai
Direction :
Venkat Prabhu
Music :
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Production :
Cloud Nine Movies, Sun Pictures
If you thought that playing a close game of rummy was exciting, then think again, because Mankatha is even more so. It has all the octane and excitement of a T20 cricket match neatly packaged for your viewing pleasure. The story in a nutshell is as follows; a plot is hatched by a group of young men to lay their hands on a sum of Rs. 500 crores that is being taken for wagering on an international cricket match. However serious the plot, Venkat Prabhu has a knack of infusing comedy into it, without taking away from the significance of the central storyline; he has done it almost to perfection this time too. Are you wondering that we have told the entire story here? Well, you will realize that there are a lot of twists and turns in the film and this one-line story is nothing compared to it.
What's new in Mankatha?
The film comes with a tagline; 'Strictly no rules'. Yes, Mankatha breaks many rules of Tamil cinema. Even though it is a multistarrer, there is never a moment where you feel that one character or other has been forced into the script.
What change will Mankatha bring?
It is going to change the way in which heroes are perceived in Tamil cinema. In fact, this film could pave the way for a more Hollywood style of framing a hero's character. And, Venkat Prabhu who was till now considered as a director who could handle the relatively small names in a big way will in future be celebrated as a director who can handle even the biggest of stars with consummate ease.
The punchline:
Well, there are quite a few. But, the one that comes to mind first is the one that has already made waves through the trailers. It is when Ajith says in a very casual manner, 'evvalo naal dhan naan nallavanaave nadikkirathu'; the entire theatre is in raptures.
Ajith's bike riding scene was the highlight of this film as none of his fans were on their seats. Almost the entire audiences in the theatre was on their feet clapping and whistling.
Premji Amaren imitating Chitty Robot's "mae" had the audiences in splits of laughter. Premji has done excellent job in the past, but in Mankatha he is one step ahead of the GAME!
Ajith's scene where he plans his executions with the chessboard is a Venkat Pirubu Punch! Brilliant concept!
We won't tell you about the other punch lines; you can enjoy them for yourself.
What you expected and what you get!
There are films that you go in and watch without any information or expectations, and come out having liked it. Then there are films where you know the one line story and have a set of expectations and watch eagerly as each one of them is fulfilled. Mankatha is not the second kind either! You go with a lot of expectations and come out completely satisfied and excited. But, Mankatha delivers more than what it promises. It almost overwhelms the viewer with what it has to offer. It is almost a celebration, like Pongal or Diwali.
Performances:
You get to see a totally new Ajith; he is absolutely magnificent, no need to say more. Arjun walks through his cop character (!?) with ease, he has done so many of them before, he is as convincing as ever. Trisha manages to grab attention and stays in your minds even though her role is pretty much small. Anjali and Lakshmi Rai also have very miniscule roles but have managed to grab the audiences' attention. Premgi too deserves special mention. Anjali, Vaibhav, Aswin and just about everyone in the cast have done full justice to their roles.
Technical
Yuvan and Venkat Prabhu have combined for the fourth time in a row and this seems to be a formidable alliance; they have won the mandate yet again. Yuvan has composed a theme music that will go well with the audiences. The re-recording is extremely good too.
In the fire accident scene, in which Ajith jumps down, Yuvan has used violins. The usage of violins is highly brilliant here.
Camera by Sakthi Saravanan adopts a tone that is just right for the film. Editing is one of the major strengths of the movie and Praveen and Srikanth have combined to do an excellent job. And, the portions shot around Dharavi leave you wondering whether the locations were real or sets.
You really have to search for negatives in this movie. Planning stages in the first half of the movie was bit slow.The only other one perhaps is the graphics work in the 'Bin lade' song. Even though it is good work, it looks a bit heavy for the song. All the melody songs have gelled with the film. In fact the fast pace of the movie was never hindered by the songs. 'Ambani Parambarai' song is worth a mention here because fans were seen having a gala time dancing to its tunes. But, otherwise, Mankatha is a riveting game.
Verdict: A match that will send your pulse racing! Mankathada
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