Film: Massu Engira Masilamani
Cast: Suriya, Premgi, Nayanthara, Parthiban, Samuthirakani, Pranitha Subhash
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Rating: 2.5/5
Suriya is no do-gooder in the film as he possesses the embodiment of a Venkat Prabhu hero. Then what does he do with Prabhu’s regular Premgi? Suriya and Premgi, for the first couple of minutes, invest their screen time on cheating people (mostly outlaws). The first twist is established when a crippling assignment goes awry. This is where the supernatural element kicks in. The supernatural bits are funny to a point, where even when they get monotonous, the laughs come out naturally. But too many elements used to concoct the screenplay of ‘Massu Engira Masilamani’ puts a dampener on the proceedings.
Somewhere in the middle of the director’s orchard, Suriya finds time to fall in love with Nayanthara, escape death twice, crack jokes with his best friend Premgi and shake a leg to Yuvan’s music. If ‘Mankatha’ had Ajith Kumar playing a villain, who didn’t give a hoot about his persona; in ‘Massu’, Suriya plays a man who transforms from being a cheat to a man of dedication. Suriya’s double role adds to the jingle in the narration. Subtle changes in the facial features of the two roles, played by Suriya, definitely work in the favor of the film.
There’s a fundamental mistake in ‘Massu’ which could have easily been avoided had the team peeked into the screenplay before turning on the camera. There are a handful of dead people whose souls have lost the sense of touch, yet the bunch of lost souls begin to scare the hell out of living people by shaking up the interiors of their houses. In one scene, two ghosts move a chapati roller and in another scene a ghost cannot touch money. This idea wouldn’t have sounded intelligible on the paper itself. How did this angle go up on the screen?
Prabhu’s twists pop out at regular intervals. Nayanthara and Pranitha have just a little more than their names to contribute to the film. Samuthirakani and Parthiban try to do justice to their roles within the squares drawn by the director. Karunas, Sriman and the rest of the ghost gang are funny indeed. While at some places the director takes all the time in the world to draw a few laughs (conversation at the bar); in some places like the ending, it seems rushed.
Though, there are several things happening in the movie, the setup of this supernatural thriller gets shrunken by inches as it tries to play to the gallery, in various places.
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