Mahaan: Strong performances and emotions drive this father-son drama

Cast: Vikram, Dhruv Vikram, Simran, Bobby Simha, Sananth, Muthukumar, Deepak Paramesh, Aadukalam Naren and Gajaraj

Director: Karthik Subbaraj

Musicdirector: Santhosh Narayanan

Rating- 3.5/5

Synopsis: A guy who is born and raised in a Gandhian family finally decides to set himself free on his 40th birthday. Life takes a U-turn and he transforms into a different person altogether. What does he gain and what does he lose?

Mahaan, the Karthik Subbaraj directorial created a lot of anticipation as it features Kollywood’s most popular father-son duo Vikram and Dhruv as father and son on screen. Despite the film’s release on Amazon Prime Video, the hype has been sky-high ahead of its release. Does Mahaan merit the build-up it’s been given?

The movie begins in 1968. We see boy named Gandhi Mahaan (Vikram) - who is raised in a family that advocates Gandhism and strongly supports anti-liquor policy - sitting with his friends Sathyavaan (Bobby Simha), son of the local arrack shop owner and Gnanam (Muthukumar) a small-time gambler. When Mahaan’s friends insist he drinks and gambles with them, he says no - not firmly though.  They part ways after they are caught – and Mahaan gets whipped by his father who reminds him that he comes from a family of freedom fighters and staunch disciples of Gandhiji. His father reminds him they even changed his birthday to August 15 from the original date of August 16. This backstory is quite crucial for the film and kudos to Karthik Subbaraj for taking the time out to keep it crisp yet deep.

The movie moves ahead to 1996, Gandhi Mahaan is now a 40-year-old Commerce teacher, who lives with his wife Nachi (Simran) and son Dadabhai Naoroji (younger version played by Akshath Das). Gandhi Mahaan’s naïve persona is depicted superbly by Vikram, who is still the same reticent person he was in his college days. He restricts himself because he carries the burden of his name. People make fun of him for his Gandhi spectacles and white khadi shirt. However, he enjoys simple pleasures like watching an occasional Hollywood movie. A day after his 40th birthday, Nachi and Dada leave on a pilgrimage to Tirupathi. This is when Gandhi decides to live life like others have been doing for years now. He decides to defy his principles and eats meat and drinks alcohol. Once again, the transformation in Vikram amazes us. It is not only about the printed shirts and sunglasses that he wears. From being a teetotaller to playing a meat-eating, hard-drinking character in one frame isn’t a simple depiction for an actor or for the audience to get convinced by the narrative. But an actor of Vikram’s calibre does it easily. At the bar, Mahaan meets his long-lost friend Sathyavaan and learns that he runs the bar along with his son Rocky (Sananth). Sathya drops Gandhi home where Nachi is on lookout for her husband. She realises to her disappointment that Gandhi is drunk and her father (Gajaraj) finds out that Sathyavaan Soosai is the son of the local arrack shop owner. A disappointed Nachi leaves Chennai with her son Dada. Gandhi is made to vacate his house and take refuge in Sathyavaan’s house. However, he does not want to get back to his old life. He says that being a Gandhian did no good for him and tells Sathya that life starts at 40. Here, Karthik Subbaraj has taken inspiration from his own trope in Jigarthanda on living a lavish life.

From this point, the commercial aspect of the film starts sneaking in. Gandhi joins Sathya’s business and goes on to become a gangster and one of the biggest liquor barons in the state. He seeks the help of a local party cadre to grow the business. That is when Gandhi and Sathya realise that it is their friend Gnanam who is a party cadre. With their help Gnanam becomes the MLA and then the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He helps them achieve a monopoly in the liquor business but tables soon turn as Gnanam plays dirty politics. 

Gandhi unapologetically plays a character with grey shades. Towards the end of the first half, we are introduced to Dada, a cop (Dhruv Vikram), who is appointed by Deputy CM Gnanam in Tamil Nadu’s Special Force to wipe out the liquor mafia. Dada knows that his dad is at the helm of all the illegal activities and Karthik Subbaraj packs a punch in the interval scene with a face-off between Mahaan and Dada.

The second half of Mahaan gives Dhruv a chance to showcase his acting skills as Vikram plays his age. Dhruv comes across as polished, fit and energetic. Special mention to Muthukumar, who shines in the character of Gnanam, the Deputy CM. Despite having power-packed performers like Vikram, Dhruv, Bobby and Sananth, he carves his own niche and earns applause. Simran too impresses with her flawless performance from the word go. Vani Bhojan is another female lead, but she is nowhere to be seen.

As director, Karthik Subbaraj keeps firm control of the plot and puts the film back on track in the climax when Mahaan defends his choices by saying Gandhians are also extremists in a way and freedom that isn’t used to its fullest isn’t freedom at all. Overall, Mahaan succeeds as an OTT film. We say stream it, don’t skip it.