Director Mysskin has his fantasies and surreal epitomes in place, be it an action or an emotional flick. Mugamoodi which is the first super-hero flick in Tamil, is no different as far as the shots and scene making is concerned, bearing Mysskin's favorite stamps all over.
The story was tailored for a superhero movie - a boy next door due to circumstances gets in the cross-fire between the good and the bad. Obviously he dons the super-hero's role to eliminate the baddies from the scum of the earth. In this case, the super-hero is "Mugamoodi", a name that obviously personifies the man behind the mask and also goes to show that a hero need not have any unique identity and there is a super hero within everyone.
The costume in a super hero flick plays a vital role and it gives out the right signals and adds to 50% of the image of the super hero. The costume here drew some inspiration from Batman, though the mask had some subtle variations which was hard enough to get convinced.
Another thing that would strike us with a super-hero are the gears and gadgets that would be used. Here there was hardly anything like that and augured well for the Indian version, where there is a budget constraint in everything.
The highlight of the movie was the Kung-Fu action scenes and the manner in which they were choreographed. For a lame person, every move was perfectly in sync with the thuds and punches and more than anything the speed in which they were performed should be lauded. Also a lot of research has gone into making it a largely believable affair.
The first half of the movie was light hearted in parts due to the love and hate scenes between the lead pair and the story took sometime to gather some pace with a parallel thrilling narrative hogging the limelight, creating an element of suspense in the minds of the audiences.
The scene where Mugamoodi clashes with the baddies, especially the chase during the night was awesome and everyone were literally on the edge of their seats.
The script had enough surprises to unwind then and there, but one got a feeling that it was too many in a short span of time.
Jiiva, as Mugamoodi, the super-hero was top class. He was in song throughout. His dedication and hard work to learn the subtle nuances of Kung-Fu has paid off handsomely. Well done!
Pooja Hegde, made a fair debut in Tamil and was a kind of relief from the usual dumb heroine, but still imparted a feeling of an eccentric girl next-door.
Naren, as the antagonist was a master stroke in casting and he was suave and belligerent for the super-hero. He did not have shades of grey and his character was pitch black throughout - be it the scenes where he was merciless to all his victims to the scene where he discards the helping hand lent to him before his last breath.
Nasser had a stereotypical role of an assistant commissioner who often loses to his enemies and hands over the responsibility to our super hero at the end.
Selva as the Kung-Fu master was subtle and sufficient.
The supporting cast of Girish Karnad and others were there to glorify Mugamoodi and held him high from falling down flat.
Music by 'K' was good in parts. 'Vaaya Moodi Summa Iruda' was the only duet in the movie and was choreographed well in a foreign locale. Apart from that the background score was largely lifted from the Hollywood 'Saw' series.
Cinematography, as in all Mysskin movies had some unique angles - during most of the scenes, the camera remained stable while the characters and other objects in the frame moved. Though it was engaging in his earlier movies, this time it was tedious, especially the low angle shots focusing the legs was a bit boring.
Editing by Gaugin had the movie's length under control for the most part of it, but for the latter half.
As in most of the action flicks, here too the cops were reduced to a bunch of duds and going a step further, they handover the entire responsibility of taking the baddies to justice to Mugamoodi during the climax.
Also the second half lacked fizz due to some weak scenes towards the climax like fighting some well trained Kung-Fu gangsters with 2 old men and a handicapped eccentric made hardly any room for logic.
But considering the fact that we have seen so many 'unlicensed' super heroes in the past beating more than a dozen men to pulp and bursting transformers with a glance, Mugamoodi, taking on the baddies with some well choreographed Kung-Fu moves and with an official super-hero license was largely engaging.
Verdict: Engaging
Rating: 3.5/5
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