‘Mahaan’ movie review: Vikram shines in this ambitious but overstuffed gangster epic

Karthik Subbaraj attempts a meditation on morality and ideology within a crime saga that struggles to bear its own weight

By now, there are a few things we have come to expect in a Karthik Subbaraj film – sorry, ‘A Karthik Subbaraj padam’. A fairly popular old song that kind of fits the film’s narrative; a smattering of Rajinikanth movie references; a character named Michael; a cameo by Subbaraj’s father, Gajaraj… what else? Oh, yes, of course: the famous Karthik Subbaraj Twist™. These tropes and motifs can be viewed as signatures of an auteur or as repetitions that get a bit tiresome.

In Mahaan, you have mixed feelings about it. In fact, you have mixed feelings about the whole film as well.

It is by no means an ordinary film, because Subbaraj has attempted an epic. We have a sprawling drama, spanning decades. We notice the lives of three key characters crisscrossing each other; their fates, inevitably intertwined. We witness history repeating itself. If all this is not enough evidence of an epic, then there is Santhosh Narayanan’s trumpet-heavy background score that accentuates the drama.