Mankatha (2011)

Country: India

Language: Tamil

Actors: Ajit Kumar, Arjun & Trisha Krishnan

Director: Venkat Prabhu

The plot involves a gang of 5 who come together because of circumstances, they plan a heist of cricket betting money. The 500 crore is supposed to come to Mumbai, to a local goon for further distribution. These 5 have to intercept the money, steal and split it among themselves. Do they manage to is the movie.

This is Ajit Kumar’s 50th movie and he doesn’t disappoint. If there is one thing that holds the film together and makes it watchable it is the screen presence of Ajit Kumar. The first 1 hour moves in a decent pace. This is even before the 5 come together and plan the heist. Naturally one expects the movie to pick-up pace post that and become gripping. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. The film becomes predictable and you wait for the last 15 minutes to validate the end you’ve got in your mind. The last 15 minutes does pick up stream, but still predictable. The only surprise being the other person who is revealed to be part of the plan.

The placement of songs are debatable and so are the skimpy clothed women. Except a couple of good tunes the rest just complete the pack. As we are about to get into the second hour, the 5 fight the goon’s men comes the best background music piece in the movie. It is a violin piece runs for about 2 minutes as the hero fights the goon’s gang with guns, laughs hysterically and yells out a fair dose of expletives. The melody you hear makes you suspect that this piece might be the handiwork of Karthik Raja or/and Bhavatharini who are credited for Additional Background score (along with Premgi Amaran).

Watch this movie for Ajit Kumar, some decent camera work by Shakti Saravanan and some slick editing by K L Praveen & N B Srikanth. Venkat Prabhu does well only in capsules, we have seen better movies from him.