Mafia Movie Review (Chapter 1)

Following a commendable directorial debut with ‘Dhuruvangal 16’, director Karthick Naren’s second outing ‘Naragasooran’ that stars Arvind Swami, Sundeep Kishen and Indrajith in lead roles remains unreleased. However, the director managed to steal the spotlights with the scintillating visual promos of ‘Mafia’ featuring Arun Vijay, Prasanna and Priya Bhavani Shankar in lead roles.

Arun Vijay plays an anti-narcotic bureau officer, who along with his colleagues is on the run to trap the city’s most dreaded Drug Lord (Prasanna) and finds his personal life is at stake.

There is one thing particular about Karthick Naren. He is very talented when it comes to narrating story through technical aspects. The entire film has a musical treatment, which deserves special mention along with stylish visuals. However, such credits eventually lands upon the technicians rather than Karthick Naren. We could hear a comment from one of the audiences during intermission, if the ‘Slow motions’ shots were replaced by normal ones, the film’s duration would be half from what it is now. However, Karthick manages to gear up with his brilliant narration in post-interval scenes that includes bunch of good surprises. However, the final twist doesn’t look as appealing as boosted by its preceding scenes. There’s a dialogue ‘His brother was killed during a police shootout and till now the body is missing.’ Come again! That’s the instant word that pops up in your mind. Is that shootout or a bomb blast for a body to go missing? Okay! That might not strike as a big deal to majorscule audiences.

Arun Vijay with his herculean physique keeps moving here and there with major shots on slow motion. But his actual potential is revealed during a fantabulous action block while rescuing his father. The way all the characters are connected during the pre-climax action drama is a real plus. We keep guessing what’s Priya Bhavani Shankar is actually doing there. She keeps accompanying Arun Vijay and maybe, the producers had suggested Karthick to have a heroine or else, it would be a dry experience for sub-urban and rural audiences. She does nothing except for holding guns that has CG trigged bullets.

As on whole, Mafia is a new attempt with the visual treatment, but when it comes to story, there’s nothing special as we have come across such tales many times.