Mafia Movie Review Rating: 4/5
Production: Lyca Productions Cast: Arun Vijay Direction: Karthick Naren Screenplay: Karthick Naren Music: Jakes Bejoy Background score: Jakes Bejoy Cinematography: Gokul Benoy Editing: Sreejith Sarang
Mafia: Chapter 1 is Karthick Naren’s second film after his impressive debut venture, Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru. Naturally, the expectations from this Arun Vijay and Prasanna-starrer were high. But, here is the thing with the second film of any successful director—it is seen as the acid test. There is nothing extraordinary about Mafia: Chapter 1—the storytelling is plain, and so is the presentation.Mafia: Chapter 1, which is quite similar to D16 in terms of treatment. Both the films proceed normally until the climax, where the director decides to pull the carpet under your feet with an outrageous twist.
While it worked extremely well in D16, the same cannot be said of Mafia, because you’re constantly one step ahead of the protagonist Aryan (played by a stylish Arun Vijay) who works for the narcotics bureau along with Sathya (Priya Bhavani Shankar). They have a mission of eradicating drugs in the city, for which they’ve to eliminate the head of the mafia, DK (a) Divakar.
But in Mafia, there seems to be some sort of reluctance to extend the universe that Karthick was trying to build in the first place.
The jungle is used as a metaphor to describe the world of Mafia, inhabited by animals and vultures. There is a lion in the form of Aryan (Arun Vijay) and a fox, Diwakar Kumaran (Prasanna), and the story is a tug-of-war between them. Oh, Priya Bhavani Shankar also exists here, by the way. The movie, however, offers very little scope to show friction between the two central characters, who are also extremely good-looking (costumes are by Ashok Kumar). It is sad that Arun Vijay and Prasanna — two of our really good actors — are fed cornflakes instead of raw meat. Part of the problem is the time — little under two hours — Mafia dedicates for the characters to develop and breathe in. What Karthick expects his actors to do is: sport colourful clothes with matching shades, and walk in slow motion. This would have been a minor grouse, had the movie had a sturdy foundation — how marvellous was Arivazhagan’s Kuttram 23.Karthick Naren’s writing is too generic, and you see the twists coming. Slow-burning plots can do wonders for romantic dramas or films that discuss relationships, but for gangster dramas, this type of narration does no good. Diwakar Kumaran (Prasanna) plays a swag businessman, whereas, in reality, he is a drug kingpin. Why did we not get a backstory about how he came to be this way? Instead, we get a dose of slow-mos, because that’s what stylish actors do. In order to be “cool”, you are required to sport a certain hair-do, wear specific glasses, but there’s nothing more than that. I am not blaming Prasanna, but what more can an actor do, if this is all he was given? Prasanna is a revelation despite his intermittent presence. But again, why are these antagonists shown smoking all the time? Maybe, because they are “thinking” people. I don’t know.
Mafia: Chapter 1 truly belongs to Arun Vijay, who swings between over-the-top and measured acting. The film could have been a winner if it had a tight screenplay. No scene was remarkably smooth in pushing the story forward. Oh, also, Mafia: Chapter 1 has Priya Bhavani Shankar travelling alongside Arun Vijay’s character. Sathya (Priya) acts only if Aryan says or wants something. Otherwise, she doesn’t have the brains to execute stuff on her own. She waits for Aryan to “give instructions” half the time—because “timing miss aaga koodadhu”. The film is saved by the fantastic climax which makes you forget the less interesting portions. It looks like a film that is made to establish the information required for the sequel, rather than a film that sets out to resolve all the knots in the story.
Karthick Naren once again shows a lot of promise, like what we saw in his previous film.Mafia: Chapter 1 is, and that’s because Karthick Naren doesn’t know how gangster dramas work in the first place. The characters and scenes should have a cinematic punch, which the film lacks.Karthick is a good filmmaker. He has the vision to execute ideas.
