Mankatha is Ajith Kumar's 50th movie. Hence, there are high expectations. By watching the theatrical trailer, one's interest for the film will surely have soared. To those who came with high expectations, Mankatha did not disappoint. A well-packaged thriller from start to finish.
Mankatha is about a suspended Maharashtra cop, Vinayak(Ajith) who teams up with Sumanth(Vaibhav), SI Ganesh(Ashwin Kakumanu), Prem(Premji) and Mahat(Mahat) to pull of a heist. Hot on their heels are Special Branch officer Prithviraj(Arjun) and the Arumuga Chettiyar's(Jayaprakash)men. A cat-and-mouse chase ensues with usual double-crosses which ends with a surprise twist.
Ajith has done a wonderful job in Mankatha after disappointing performances in Aegan and Asal. After David Billa, his Vinayak Mahadevan character oozes style and substance. A tailor-made role for him. Arjun as Prithviraj is nothing new for us as we have seen him in such roles in the past. Vaibhav,Ashwin and Mahat did a decent job. Premji, as usual managed to evoke laughters here and there with his dialogues and antics. Premji's character reminds us of the 'Napster' from The Italian Job. Jayaprakash fits into the character of Arumuga Chettiyar with ease. Arvind Akash fits the bill as Faisal, Arumuga Chettiyar's henchman. Of the female leads, only Trisha and Lakshmi Rai had importance and did justice to their roles while Anjali and Andrea are wasted.
The other highlight of the film is notably Yuvan Shankar Raja's music. Vilayadu Mankatha, Open the Bottle and Balle Lakka songs stand out and went with the flow of the movie. The two songs, Kannadi Nee and Vaada Bin Laada look mis-placed. The BGM is excellent and goes well with the mood of the film. Editing by Praveen-Srikanth is perfectly executed. Sakthi Saravanan's camera work captured the chase and gunfight scenes well but the colour tone seems to be dull in the first half. Silva's stunts are just the usual stuff and nothing is eye catching. The only drawback are the stunts itself where usage of visual effects can be clearly seen. Realistic stunts could have made the film better.
In a nutshell, Mankatha is Ajith's game from start to finish. Influences of Hollywood films(RED,Italian Job) are evident but Ajith remains the show-stealer. A perfect 50th film and a wonderful treat for Thala's fans.
