Director: Venkat Prabhu
Cast: Suriya, Nayanthara, Samuthirakani, Parthiban, Premigi Amaren
Rating: 1/5
Venkat Prabhu's Massu Engira Masilamani seems like a collage of several films. It begins like Neeraj Pandey's Special 26 with Suriya's Masilamani and his friend, Jet (Premigi Amaren), posing as vigilance officers and raiding a liquor shop selling the drink on Gandhi Jayanti. The two loot the money there and escape, before taking a ship to impersonate Coast Guard men to intercept a vessel at sea carrying smuggled goods and currency notes. With bags full of loot, the two are so deliriously happy that they burst in a song and dance, not one but two!
A little later, when their car crashes, Jet is killed and Masilamani survives, but acquires the extra-sensory perception to see ghosts. One of them is his own friend, Jet, and the other a carbon copy of Masilamani himself called Shakthi. Both help the living man -- much like the Patrick Swayze character in the 1990 American movie, Ghost (by Jerry Zucker), who helps his wife, essayed by Demi Moore.Prabhu narrates the rest of his film through a series of extraordinarily illogical and utterly unbelievable incidents that include Masilamani's romance with Nayanthara (essaying a hospital staffer, Malini).
Tamil cinema has been talked about because of its ability to present novel themes, but Massu Engira Masilamani turns out to be a mishmash of movies that have been seen earlier. Suriya does appear plausible in some sequences, so does Nayanthara -- but given such a storyline and script, they struggle to keep the film afloat.
