A conflict is the central plot. You have the titular character Mahaan, as in Gandhi Mahaan, who believes that an ideology of a human must be left to his choice. And the people, who are against him, are the ones who believe that there is only one type of ideology that everyone should adhere to. And when the emotions are at play, it’s an amazing opportunity to reinvent a storytelling. To say the least, Director Karthik Subburaj has done an undistinguished work of art which fails hard at impressing the spectators. He has set an amazing stage only to deliver something which is hackneyed.
Gandhi Mahaan (Vikram), a simpleton, is conditioned to follow the Gandhian principles of teetotalism since his childhood. His wife, Nachi (Simran), who also shrieks ‘Aye!’ to this principle, bugs Mahaan even more. At the age of 40, he breaks bad. There is some strength you could sense in the writing but it’s heavily spiritless.
The film assumes that the characters have committed themselves to a realistic behavior but only to find that they are far from it. The staging is fantastically revealed for a dramatic genre film with eccentric characters, but it falls hard. Karthik Subburaj’s Mahaan is full of a hotchpotch of old and seemingly new ideas. It’s a lackluster delivery from a director who is inspired from the likes of Finch, Scorsese and Tarantinesque styles. The women in Mahaan are, once again, only used as props for motives to drive further the story but they don’t come with a voice to speak their motives for themselves.
The montage, that shows the rise of Mahaan and co, in the duration of 20 years, lacked the coldness, the passion it requires. The film doesn’t surprise, but when it does, it is only short-lived. You expect mind games, you expect a space for the characters to play hide and seek, to reveal significant details at the right time. But in Mahaan, there is not much to look forward. It is not as gripping as it needs to be. And the important question, which is, ‘How the climax is going to unfold without killing the two ideologies those the director pit against?’. And the answer meagerly pays off its heavy due. There is an exceptional Bobby Simha who delivers the eccentricity and the depth he was demanded.
The film is self-aware of its decision to make the teetotaler, Gandhian-principle abider into a ruthless, revenge-seeking, violent cop but that’s not enough to save it.
There is a scene after a direct confrontation. It’s an aerial shot. You see Mahaan at the center and you see his two important people lie wounded on either side of him. Off-Screen, A train goes fast but you only sense the shuddering and trembling of its effect On-Screen. It’s fantastically conceived. And this scene is unforgettable because it hoists high the emotions comparatively how the rest of the film is conceived. The poses and styles take the backseat for a while. I wish it didn’t handle the emotions of its characters with kid gloves. I wish the film had got its pulse right and had executed better.
