Director Vijay Milton is back after six years, and the first few minutes of the Vijay Antony-starrer, Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan, gave the impression that it’s a worthy comeback for both the Vijays. The film starts with a pleasant surprise that it’s a sequel to Vijay Antony’s Salim (2014), which itself was a sequel to his 2012 film Naan. The quick-paced cuts connect the dots swiftly and bring a sense of familiarity to the protagonist of Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan from the get-go; but little did we know that they will also happen to be arguably the most fascinating part of the film.
Karthik (Vijay Antony), who had stolen Salim’s identity in Naan and became a doctor in Salim, has become a covert agency agent who lost his friends and his lady love in an ambush on a rainy day. Now, as a man who lost everything in the rain, and bogged down by survivor’s guilt, Karthik attempts to start afresh. With the help of his Chief (Sarathkumar), he reaches the shores of Andaman and finds refuge at an eatery managed by a mother-son duo. But little does our hero know that despite touching land, he is still in troubled waters when he crosses paths with a local loan shark, Daali (Dhananjay).
A man with a past wanting a fresh start away from the horrors of his past, only to be pulled back into it, is a trope that’s anything but new to Indian cinema. The idea of a double life is something even Vijay Antony himself gave a shot with Pichaikkaran,which turned out to be one of his biggest hits. Be it the drastic change in the protagonist’s life — that comes with the heft of getting accustomed to a new place, new people and new responsibilities — or the mass transformation where he reveals who he really is and what he could possibly do, Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan faulters everywhere Pichaikkaran triumphed.
Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan (Tamil)
Director: Vijay Milton
Cast: Vijay Antony, R Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj, Megha Akash, Dhananjaya, Pruthvi Ambaar
Runtime: 133 minutes
Storyline: A man with a bloody past tries to start afresh with a new identity only for trouble to knock on his door once again
Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan feels like a hodgepodge of several action films featuring such a protagonist. The core idea seems to be cut from the same cloth as The Equalizer films while a yesteryear killer seeking vengeance for his puppy would remind you of a particular film series starring Keanu Reeves. Inspirations are justifiable when used as crutches to support an otherwise interesting tale, not when turned into stretchers expected to carry an insipid plot.
A still from ‘Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan’
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Special Arrangement
Past the predictable story, it is the shoddily penned characters and scenes that water down this film. We have the damsel in distress in the form of Sowmiya (Megha Akash); a gabby Burma (Pruthvi Ambaar), who gets thrashed often making us feel that the treatment meted out to him is totally worth it; his mother (Saranya Ponvanan), who says the most unrelatable lines in an attempt to sound profound; and of course, the ever-threatening villain (Dhananjaya), whose idea of terror is serving poison flavoured coffee. Even dependable seniors like Sarathkumar and Saranya, and a cameo by Sathyaraj, fail to save the film from the shallow waters of mediocre writing.
The streaks of potential you see now and then, sadden you further. In a scene, Daali’s ego is bruised after an encounter with a dubious cop (Murali Sharma) but that sub-plot leads nowhere. The triangular love story between the three primary characters doesn’t feel organic. A bit more information on the agency headed by Captain (Sathyaraj) would have added more value to the backstory; instead, the film settles on putting him in expensive clothes, placing him in an embellished underground lair and making him say something along the lines of the actor’s iconic ‘Thagudu, thagudu’ lines.
The film’s title tells you of the poetic feel the makers have gone for, and it’s quite dramatic to place a character with an aversion towards rain on an island surrounded by water, but Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan fails to capitalise on these tropes. What we are left with is a painfully formulaic plot riddled with uninteresting characters and unsurprising happenings that are sure to rain on your parade.
Mazhai Pidikkatha Manithan is currently running in theatres
That all changes when Justin receives a mysterious email containing 10 audio clips of an expectant young couple going through some kind of demonic possession. Evy instantly dismisses it as a hoax, even as spooky things also start happening to her. But, as they listen to each one, it gradually becomes impossible to deny that something very strange is going on. Fortunately, the experience of listening to these 10 little snippets of a life being shared by two people who, like Justin, never appear onscreen, isn’t a slog. Demonic possession is a total cliché at this point, but Tuason puts a nasty twist on it by focusing on a particularly horrible ghoul who targets pregnant people and new mothers, with the intention of killing them and their babies (trigger warning for any parents planning to watch).
