Before the review part, here's the movie frame-by-frame in words...
Those who didn't watch the movie yet, please scroll down for review...
The Story
The film opens up with kidnapping of four different people belonging to the field of medicine.
Then, a policeman gets GPS information regarding the suspect of the kidnapping scene. The police team successfully catches the suspect and he is taken to the custody of Mr.Rathnavel, who asks the suspect to reveal the reason for kidnapping. The suspect began to narrate...
In the next frame, a Magician comes on-screen along with the title card.
Next comes a doctor named Maaran (looks like the Magician) , who is caught by security in Paris airport, and scrutinized for sporting the traditional dhoti.When Maaran sees a fainting woman, he rushes to her, overpowering the security guards, helps the woman and gets appreciated.
Then he is picked up by a convoy to an award ceremony, where he receives 'Best Humanitarian award' for helping millions of people with humanity, who charges only Rs.5 for any medical need.
There, Maaran is approached by an another doctor (named Arjun), who asks Maaran to work in his hospital, and ask for his price, but Maaran refuses the offer of Dr.Arjun.
Anu Pallavi and her friend, assistants of Dr.Arjun comes to him and conveys that they couldn't get a business-class ticket for him, and Dr.Arjun replied that he can stay in Paris for two more days.
Maaran comes with his friend Vadivu to a coffee shop, where he meets Anu Pallavi and become friends. Suddenly, the robbers enter the coffee shop and they are bashed up by the magician in a magical fight before he vanishes.
In next sequence, Maaran comes with Vadivu for shopping, where they see Dr.Arjun with his girlfriend. Maaran follows Dr.Arjun and comes to know that Anu Pallavi and her friend are the assistants of Dr.Arjun. Maaran evades Dr.Arjun and meets Anu Pallavi, and Anu Pallavi express her love to Maaran. Maaran invites Anu Pallavi to watch his magic show, and asks her to bring Dr.Arjun to the magic show.
The magic show begins and the Magician with a mask runs the show well. Death box is one of the tricks, performed at the magic show. The Magician picks up Dr.Arjun from the crowd as a volunteer to perform the trick. Dr.Arjun enters the death box and the Magician pierced three swords into the death box, and Dr.Arjun enjoyed the trick. Before piercing the final sword, The Magician tells a poem in Tamil, the mother of all languages, to Dr.Arjun. With rage on his eyes, the Magician takes
off his mask, went closer to Dr.Arjun, completes his poem.
Dr.Arjun recognizes the Magician as Maaran, but the Magician shouts 'Vetrimaaran' and the face of Thalapathy 'Vetrimaaran' comes to his mind. No sooner did Dr.Arjun recollect his memory than the Magician stabbed him. Anu Pallavi got shocked to see the killing.
Dr.Daniel Arokiyaraj, chairman of Unimercy hospitals, a best friend of Dr.Arjun, comes to the crime scene and asks Mr.Rathnavel to catch the murderer. Mr.Rathnavel assures that he can catch the suspect soon, with a clue that he should be either a Magician-Doctor or Doctor-Magician, since he provided anesthesia to the real magician, who has to run the show that day.
Then, Maaran reaches home and got a grand reception in his area.
Tara, a reporter gets a task of interviewing Dr.Maaran in her first show. So, she takes her friend along with her to see Dr.Maaran, whom she had not seen earlier. Tara calls Maaran and asked him to show her Dr.Maaran. Maaran shows Vadivu and tells her he is the one you are looking for. Tara believes Maaran and request him to bring Vadivu (confused as Dr.Maaran) to attend the interview.
Next day, Maaran comes to Tara's office individually. Tara got angered and asked Maaran about Vadivu. Maaran consoles Tara that the doctor is busy with an operation.
Meanwhile, a staff from the news channel comes to Maaran and greets him. Then Tara realized that Maaran lied to her.
Maaran answered every questions asked by Tara and the general public brilliantly, which impressed Tara and she expressed her love to Dr.Maaran.
In next scene, The Magician and Vadivu plans to kidnap four different people from the field of medicine- (the scene which opened the film)
Mr.Rathnavelu asks the suspect, why he kidnapped these four people (Ambulance driver, Agent, Hospital's HR and a Surgeon) ?
The suspect tells the story of an Auto driver's daughter who met with an accident and died, due to the deliberated time delay made by the Ambulance driver and Agent, while making deal for the commission. As she reaches the hospital, the Surgeon checks her pulse rate and says that it's too late. But HR says that they could collect the money from her father and then do a surgery, though it would not save her life.
The Auto driver sells his and his wife's belongings to get money for the surgery. After making the half payment, the Auto driver assures that he will pay the rest soon. In operation theater, the girl dies and Surgeon apologize to the Auto driver that he couldn't save his daughter.
The HR asks Auto driver to pay the balance amount and asks him to get the body of his daughter. The Auto driver's wife expresses her anger on HR and commits suicide by jumping off from the hospital building.
Mr.Rathnavel shed his tears after hearing this story, and asked about the kidnapped people. The suspect gives the latitude and longitude information of kidnapped people. The police force rushed to those locations and found the kidnapped people inside a box of similar type with a different method in which they are hacked to death.
After seeing such strange setup used to kill these four people, Mr.Rathnavel confirms that he is not Dr.Maaran. Mr.Rathnavel asks the suspect to reveal his identity.
The suspect says that, one night, when Dr.Maaran was asleep at his home, some people came and asked Dr.Maaran to save a person who consumed poison.
When Dr.Maaran go and checks the person, he was beaten up by a gang, there comes the Magician to save unconscious Dr.Maaran.
After the fight, Vadivu arrives at the spot, kidnaps Dr.Maaran and hides him in Vetri's place.
Vetri gets into Maaran's home and gives GPS information to police, and got caught by the police force as planned (opening scene).
Then, the suspect says the location of Dr.Maaran who is held by the suspect. The police force located Dr.Maaran and reveals himself as Vetri, the Magician.
Mr.Rathnavel tries to alert the police. Vetri locks up Mr.Rathnavel with the handcuff, which previously held his hand, using his magic trick.
Vetri hints that this is just a beginning and still lot more to come, before he escapes from Mr.Rathnavel's custody.
Vetri goes to Anu, and convey his apology for using her to kill Dr.Arjun and explains his reason to kill Dr.Arjun and his mission.
Dr.Daniel enters Maaran's home and threatens to kill his lover Tara and Mom Sarala. He asks Maaran to reveal the whereabout of Vetri. But Maaran tells that he doesn't know about Vetri. Dr.Daniel gives him a day to find Vetri and sends back his girl and mom safely.
Vadivu comes to Maaran to hand over the clinic's key and get away from there in a scooter.
Maaran follows Vadivu and finds Vetri.
Once Maaran found Vetri, he attacks Vetri and asks who he really is.
Vadivu stops Maaran and begins to narrate the story, that both of them must know...
Some years back, in Punjab, Aishwarya Vetrimaaran (Ice) places a bet for her Thala'Pathi' (husband) in a wrestling match.
There comes Vetrimaaran (called Thalapathi in his locality), and outshines every wrestlers who fought with him.
While Thalapathi wrestles, Ice gets labor pain and delivers a baby boy (Maaran aka Ilayathalapathi).
Vetrimaaran, Ice and Maaran moves to Madurai from Punjab.
In Mannoor (a small village in Madurai), some rogues comes into a temple and began to measure the area occupied by temple. When Priest asks them, why they are here. They replied that the temple is to be replaced by a factory. The Priest tries to stop them, but the Priest is pushed down.
ChittuKuruvi, an old woman asks young Vadivu to call Thalapathi.
Thalapathi comes to the spot and bashes everyone there, then, goes to theater and attacks MLA and a Police man who were responsible for planning to set up the factory.
The people of the village gathered to discuss on the factory building issue. Thalapathi firmly rejects the factory construction idea and tells that if they destroys pond to build factory, the village will suffer in the future for water.
So, Thalapathi concludes by saying that a temple can be built in that area and asks the people to prepare to celebrate the stone laying ceremony for the temple.
The ceremony cum festival is about to begin, and Thalapathi is ready to lay the stone. In that moment, the fire broke out and began to eat lives.
Thalapathi shouldered the herculean task of putting down the fire and he made it, despite severe injuries to some children.
When Thalapathi rushed to a hospital in urban area of Madurai, to save the lives of children, the doctor couldn't save two children and said that if they could bring the wounded children ten minutes earlier, they could have been saved.
The people of the village gathered again and Thalapathi decides to build a hospital instead of temple, so that noboby in the village dies, hereafter.
Thalapathi built the hospital and young Dr.Daniel Arokiyaraj became the chief doctor of the hospital.
Dr.Daniel assures Thalapathi that he would n't leave anybody to die in this village.
Everyone in the village thanked Thalapathi and Dr.Daniel for their service to people.
One day, Ice got labor pain to deliver her second baby and Thalapathi took her to the hospital.
Dr.Arjun went to Dr.Daniel and said that Thalapathi's wife is admitted to deliver a baby, as a normal delivery. But, Dr.Daniel says that it's gonna be a Cesarean.
Dr.Daniel tells that if it is a normal delivery, they will go home after delivery, and if it is a cesarean, they have to stay in hospital for some days, and have to pay fees and room charge.
Dr.Daniel reveals that he has chosen Doctor profession not to help people, but to do business in the field of medicine.
Dr.Daniel convinces Thalapathi to go for cesarean and Thalapathi accepts.
Dr.Arjun prepares the operation theater and Dr.Daniel comes there, says to Ice that it's umbilical cord prolapse and it's only advice-able to go for cesarean. Ice gives a nod and operation begins.
Thalapathi and Ilayathalapathi (young Maaran) waits outside the operation theater to see the baby, but the baby died in the operation theater, due to the overdose of Anesthesia. Ice got fix and Dr.Daniel asked to clear out the baby.
Ilayathalapathi runs to the operation theater to see Ice, Thalapathi ran behind to stop him, and got shocked to see Ice suffering with fix. Ice says to Thalapathi that everything is wrong here and we are cheated, before dying.
Thalapathi goes in search of Daniel to avenge him, but Daniel left the hospital.
Thalapathi leaves the hospital, having Ilayathalapathi in his hand, got attacked by some goons of Daniel. Ilayathalapathi got hurt in his head during the fight and Thalapathi wraps Ilayathalapathi in jute and places him in a Lorry.
Thalapathi fights ferociously with the gang, slices the hand off from Kasi, a henchman of Daniel, but, finally stabbed on back by Daniel.
Thalapathi dies after saying that Dr.Daniel will face the consequences for his unforgivable sins.
The baby (boy), which was thrown in the bin, after declared dead in operation theatre, raises it's hand, came to life.
That baby is Vetri, who was raised up by Salim Ghosh, a legendary magician along with Vadivu.
After Vadivu completes narrating the story, police arrives there and arrests Vetri.
Daniel hears the news of Vetri's arrest and sends his son-in-law, Shesha to Maaran's clinic to get a sign from Maaran.
Meanwhile, Daniel goes to jail where Vetri is kept and meets Vetri.
Vetri reveals that he is Maaran and Vetri is in clinic. (They swapped themselves before police arrests Vetri)
Vetri injures Shesha and asks Daniel to come to him.
Daniel comes in search of Vetri with his goons, get attacked by glass bottles, like how Vetrimaaran (Thalapathi) was attacked.
During the fight, a truck entered the fight area and hit Vetri.
Vetri fainted in pain. Kasi jumps off the truck and drags out Maaran, who was caught by Kasi, when he was being taken to court.
Maaran saves Vetri and then knocks out Kasi.
Then, Vetri puts Daniel in a box with a setup to kill him, and Daniel dies.
In court, Vetri was declared as convict and got arrested.
Before going to jail, Vetri address a press meet outside court, where he speak on the general crimes in the field of medicine and strongly condemns government for GST, improper maintenance of Government hospitals, etc.
In jail, Vetri watches a man, who carries his dead wife in road, in a news channel and vanishes.
The film ends.
The Review
- The teaser of the movie touched 1M likes and shattered a plenty of records within few hours of its launch.
- Thus. it sowed the seeds of expectation in the minds of people, that grown like bamboo tree, during the release of the film.
- The expectations are met, and the film didn't fail to satisfy both the general audience and the distributors.
- The fans celebrated in the theater and they were served with a perfect, entertaining treat.
- Vijay is the heart of the movie, and he is playing triple role for the first time. He nailed it and the Thalapathi role will be remembered forever. His madurai slang, timing comedy and romance were awesome. He carries the whole film in his shoulders. I think, this is his career's best, Hats off!!!
- Next, the cinematographer. GK Vishnu shines with his camera! A promising debut! Every objects in the film looked gorgeous on-screen. Especially, when Thalapathi walks out of theater in a fight sequence, that particular shot angle was amazing. He is going to rule the world of cinematography soon.
- Editor Ruben excels in his job again. Though the run-time of the film is almost three hours, we didn't feel that throughout the film. The editing was racy and he didn't miss, even a single frame, captured by GK Vishnu.
- Ruben and Vishnu are like bread and butter of this film.
- Music by AR Rahman, academy-award winner. 'Aalaporaan Tamizhan', 'Mersal Arasan' will make us dance to its tunes for sure. The BGM lifts the movie, still more higher. The BGM played in the accident of Auto Driver's daughter, SJ Surya's enty, Theater fight, Naathaswaram in the flashback portion, beginning of Stone-laying ceremony were experimental and priceless. Mersal topped the iTunes chart of India, which is enough to say about the songs.
- Lyricist Vivek, he put himself in limelight, after penning beautiful lyrics for this movie. He made 'Aalaporaan Tamizhan' as the National anthem of every Tamil speaking souls. He gave a pure classical Tamil song 'Neethane' as well as a Tanglish (Tamil-English) number 'Maacho'. He dedicated 'Mersal Arasan' to AR Rahman and Vijay fans.
- After AR Rahman-Vairamuthu combo, it's AR Rahman-Vivek combo!
- Ramana Girivasan's dialogue and Vijayendra Prasad's screenplay gave life to the script of the movie.
- Muthuraj's art direction is an added feather to the Mersal's hat. The magic show and the Stone laying ceremony are the good examples for his artistic skills.
- SJ Surya as Dr.Daniel Arokiyaraj, proves himself as a best actor. When he foretells the future of medicine field in a scene, he is applauded by the audience in theaters. A stylish, cunning and deadly villain!
- Vadivel as Vadivu, gave a solid comeback into the film industry, after a long gap. He balanced both comic and sentimental scenes perfectly in 50-50 ratio.
- Nithya Menon as Ishwarya Vetrimaaran (Ice), stunned the audience with her astonishing acting skills. She dedicated herself for her role and did it with fullest of her abilities.
- Samantha as Tara and Kajal Agarwal as Anu Pallavi were the cute quotients of this movie.
- The young Maaran and young Vadivu will not fade from our memories.
- Kovai Sarala, Satyaraj, Kaali Venkat, The old woman who played the role of ChittuKuruvi, 'Naan Kadavul' Rajendran did justice to their roles.
- The stunts and action sequences in the film were spicy and power-packed.
- TSL's promotions added additional boost to the film. Thanks to Hema Rukmani and Shri Thenandal production house.
- Finally, a hat-trick for Director Atlee. He has good knowledge about the general audience and delivered this social-message filled movie with utmost sincerity. He used the formula, which he learned from his teacher, one of the India's best director, Shankar. Director Shankar's shades were present in the movie in many places. Director Atlee shouldn't have let Vijay to smoke for the Magician's character, he could have differed Vetri from Maaran in some other way.
- The entire crew of Mersal deserves great appreciation for their enthusiastic efforts.
Blurb: Social message wrapped up in an entertaining envelope!
