Mahaan review: Vikram, Dhruv’s intense drama pits father and son against each other in battle for revenge

Mahaan review: The film extracts a very uninhibited performance from Vikram, who is refreshing in a character that spans over five decades.

Karthik Subbaraj has always been an exciting filmmaker among the new crop of directors who are redefining Tamil cinema. With mostly novel attempts to his credit, including the heavily panned Jagame Thandhiram with Dhanush, Karthik has emerged as one of those directors whose work you want to closely follow. With Mahaan, which features father-son duo Vikram and Dhruv Vikram for the first time together on screen, Karthik weaves a very interesting relationship drama that takes two popular Gandhian ideologies – non-violence and prohibition of alcohol – to spin an interesting story around faith and freedom.

Mahaan review: Vikram with his son Dhruv. 

Mahaan is centred on Gandhi (Vikram), who is born in a Tamil family that idolises Mahatma Gandhi and his beliefs. The protagonist named Gandhi’s grandfather and father have played a vital role in India’s independence. From a very young age, Gandhi was strictly raised with Gandhian ideologies, eventually taking away his basic freedom to live life the way he wants. Cut to 30 years later, on his 40th birthday, Gandhi decides to spend the day doing everything he always wished for when his wife and son are away on a trip to Tirupati. Gandhi meets a former student, Rocky, who now owns a chain of bars with his father.

Rocky decides to celebrate Gandhi’s 40th birthday in a big way and in the process, gets him drunk. All hell breaks loose when Gandhi goes home the next day and his wife decides to leave him. Gandhi goes back to join Rocky and his father Sathyavan (Bobby Simhaa) in their liquor business and soon transforms into the most successful liquor baron. 20 years later, when Gandhi crosses paths with his son Dadabhai Naoroji aka Dada, the drama that ensues forms the crux of the story.

Mahaan raises a very important question about taking someone’s ideology and imposing it on others, expecting them to embrace it wholeheartedly. Vikram’s character is the perfect example of that kind of person who has been forced to live a certain way because of an ideology that was imposed upon him by his family. It is that same ideology that turns him into an extremist. Karthik takes this idea about ideological beliefs turning into extremism and pits a father and son in a battle for revenge which makes Mahaan a terrific relationship drama.

Mahaan extracts a very uninhibited performance from Vikram, who is refreshing in a character that spans over five decades. This is a very mature performance, and he embraces the character’s flaws and vulnerability so convincingly. Dhruv Vikram looks even more comfortable in his second outing as an actor. After leaving a strong impact with his debut film, a remake of Arjun Reddy, he delivers a slightly exaggerated performance which suits the character. Bobby Simhaa gets a meaty part and even though you find him in almost every Karthik Subbaraj film, he manages to surprise each time.

Film: Mahaan

Director: Karthik Subbaraj

Cast: Vikram, Dhruv Vikram, Bobby Simhaa and Simran