Mersal (2017)

Mersal: Directed by Atlee Kumar. With Joseph Vijay, Nithya Menen, S.J. Suryah, Kajal Aggarwal. A magician and a doctor attempt to expose the corruption at the heart of India’s medical industry.

“I went to this film after a colleague recommended it. Iu0026#39;ll be frank I wasnu0026#39;t fond of the really random dance sequences (as an American theyu0026#39;re a bit too random for me, though Mr. Vijay can dance really well) but the film got those out of the way early. I was told a couple things about this film before going in- it is a huge u0026quot;mass masalau0026quot; so it fuses many different genres together. And that the actor, Vijay, is an enormous superstar in the Tamil state who the people really adore. As soon as the film started, the audience whistled and cheered at just his name appearing on the screen! And then when he first appears in the film, the audience was overjoyed and so many cheers, Iu0026#39;ve never been among a crowd like that. Itu0026#39;s crazy I hadnu0026#39;t seen a film by Vijay yet but I got chills seeing how much the audience loved him. And throughout the film, it was too easy to see why: spectacular performances as 3 different people, and he nailed them all. Especially the village role, was a terrific and moving performance, he has a huge screen presence and powerful flair about him. Iu0026#39;ve noticed that the Indian superstars are really a class apart in this, I can see these select few are at that level due to these certain intangibles that have won over the audience, its an trait I donu0026#39;t see in even the biggest of Hollywood actors. Anyway about the actual filmu0026#39;s story, the beginning had more comedic elements, I didnu0026#39;t understand some of the jokes, but thatu0026#39;s okay because there is tons more to this film. I felt the first female character was completely unnecessary and the second one was acceptable but also not needed. The third actress, however, was GREAT! Nithya Mennon is her name, she and Vijay in the second half brought tears to my eyes repeatedly, I didnu0026#39;t expect to be so moved! I had similar reactions to some really heart-wrenching scenes in the first half as well, the film had lots of emotional power at its core. The film was unique to me in that Vijayu0026#39;s characters stood up so strongly against corruption, malpractices and deception by the medical industry, especially against the poor people- the people who need it the most but end up also losing the most in these scenarios. A new subject for me, handled so well. Iu0026#39;m not aware of what the medical policies for patients in India are like, do people always pay before the treatment or is that just certain types of hospitals? Some questions I would just ask my colleagues on Monday. Another thing was when Vijayu0026#39;s characters said certain dialogues, the crowd cheered and clapped a lot, especially during his speech scenes where he criticizes many injustices in front of large crowds in the film. Not only did the crowd in the film cheer strongly, so did my audience! It was as if I was in the film. And the action!! It was tremendous, lots of intense fight scenes with nice use of wire-work. Every hit by Mr. Vijay felt powerful with lots of emotions to it: these arenu0026#39;t your normal u0026quot;beat up the bad guys because theyu0026#39;re against youu0026quot; fight scenes but rather they felt like a man who has had to go through so much emotional pain that every punch and kick roared of justice. And wow was the crowd happy and loud during these fights! Wonderful experience really, I laughed, cried and was also really fired up during the film. Iu0026#39;m interested to watch more of Vijayu0026#39;s films now and I will definitely anticipate when his next film releases.”