‘Mark Antony’ movie review: SJ Suryah has some fun in this loud and silly time-travel gangster flick – The Hindu
RUTHLESS IS ANTONY! ANTONY’S SON IS SCAREDY! TWO ECCENTRIC SJ SURYAHS! EERIE SILK SMITHA LOOK-ALIKE CAMEO! WIGS! GUNS! BOMBS! KABOOM!
Studying a evaluate written like this may nonetheless appear extra interesting than watching Adhik Ravichandran’s Mark Antony, an completely loud and foolish time-travel gangster drama that’s neither severe in what it strives to attain nor quirky sufficient to miss its obtrusive points.
The USP of Adhik’s story may circle round this straightforward however fascinating thought — what would occur if a time-travel system will get in between a nasty 70s gang warfare? Adhik’s premise and the way he initially chooses to make use of the time journey system does present promise. It’s 1975, and Antony (Vishal) and Jackie Pandian (SJ Suryah) collectively rule a greater a part of Chennai. Sadly, all of it goes awry when their nemesis Ekambaram (Sunil) kills Antony in a membership on a fateful night. Minimize to 1995, we see Jackie as a kingpin who’s extra loving in direction of Antony’s son, Mark (Vishal once more), than his personal son, Madhan (Suryah once more). Issues take a flip when Mark comes throughout a Time Journey Cellphone made by late scientist Chiranjeevi (Selvaraghavan) that lets him place a name to the previous and decides to name up his late mother and father.
Mark Antony (Tamil)
Chiranjeevi’s system is an intriguing sci-tech that Adhik makes use of to his whims, solely to scale back it to a plaything for some grownup kids. There are after all just a few time-travel guidelines for this system – a name might be positioned solely to the previous, a person can not place a name to the identical date twice, a first-time person will levitate within the air, lighting could cause disruptions, and solely the person will pay attention to when issues change within the current after the decision. However don’t trouble remembering these guidelines as even Adhik doesn’t take it significantly.
Furthermore, what’s it with Tamil cinema hero characters that they don’t appear to know even the best of time-travel guidelines? Simply weeks after we noticed GV Prakash because the infuriating Jeeva in Adiyae, we now have Vishal play Mark, a personality that neither understands time-travel nor finds any actual redemption when it comes to writing.
In reality, after a life-changing time-travel flip, you may count on Mark to course of the sudden adjustments, however why trouble when he can shake a leg together with his ex-girlfriend Ramya (Ritu Varma), an pointless damsel-in-distress who will get to do little or no within the movie. A lot of the characters on this movie emote in a single, typically loud, observe — Antony speaks in a base voice and growls when wanted, the womaniser Jackie shouts, Mark squeals or shudders, and Madhan is someplace between all of the above.
Mark Antony may have been that all-out wacky entertainer that makes you overlook any logic loopholes, however apart from Suryah’s pleasant presence and some good masala moments, there’s nothing actually entertaining about it. The screenplay retains you anticipated about one thing shocking, one thing that breaks the foundations of the style or one thing that makes up for every part that’s misplaced, however that by no means occurs. And it solely will get worse when Vishnu Priya Gandhi, a look-alike of late actor Silk Smitha, altered barely utilizing graphics, is introduced in for reasonable jokes; she is continually made to talk with a seductress’ modulation and even Vishal’s seemingly empathetic dialogue about what Silk a.ok.a Vijayalakshmi went by means of can’t disguise all of the irony in what follows.
Adhik has at all times been a controversial filmmaker, notorious for some insensitive filmmaking, and the blues proceed in Mark Antony. You might not count on a heartless, womanising gangster from the 70s, like Jackie, to empathise with queers and so that you may give his queerphobic dialogue a go. However why doesn’t a filmmaker in 2023 battle to know that an merchandise tune that includes transwomen solely provides to how they’re fetishised in society or mocked? It additionally brings again the poisonous trope of antagonising queer characters when the identical transwomen try and kill a lead character and are overwhelmed to a pulp, and when an effeminate homosexual character (Y. G. Mahendran) is antagonised.
The one saving graces of Mark Antony are its vivid colors that come out of heat tints and the character designs. Each Vishal and Suryah look beautiful in just a few photographs, and each the actors appeared to have had numerous enjoyable whereas taking part in the older characters. But when I had the Time Journey Cellphone, my name would have been to both Adhik after he completed his first draft or to the lead actors after they signed on to do the movie. Or myself, previous to watching the movie.
Mark Antony is at the moment working in theatres
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