Mersal is an awesome movie with great entertainment value. Vijay has given his best performance yet and he deserves praise for his triple role.The movie doesn't overdo the "mass" image that Vijay has, but it does provide us with some moments that will give you goosebumps. The cinematography is top notch in this movie, and songs like "Mersal Arasan" and "Aallaporan Tamizhan" are enjoyable to watch, All thanks to Vijay's dancing skills of course! Action scenes are lacking for Vijay's standards, but given the story-line it makes perfect sense.
The story itself isn't anything mind-blowing and fairly average, but the reason why it works well in this case is because of the social messages that delivers. Throughout the movie, there are many references to social issues that are impacting India, and it's nice that the movie takes some time to talk about these issues. The main focus of the movie was about how hospitals are exploiting patients to make extra profit, and I think the movie did good job of drawing out the emotional plight of the victims. The flashback with Vijay's Vetrimaaran character strengthens that sentiment.
The performance of the supporting cast was pretty average. Vadivelu makes a comeback to comedy after many years, but I rarely laughed at anything he said. SJ Surya does the stereotypical villain role and does a decent job at it. We probably just expected more out of him, seeing his award-worthy performance in Spyder. The rest of the performances by the supporting cast was average.
My main criticism for the movie would be the love interests that Vijay has. Samantha and Kajal's characters were really not needed for this movie, and their only purpose was to fill up 2 songs. The movie spends valuable time with pointless romance scenes, and had the movie been more dedicated to the social message that it was trying it present, there would have been more impact. The only Heroine that was needed was Nithya Menen, who did an excellent job with her character. The magician aspect of Vetri's character was cool, but sometimes it seemed too unrealistic and was only put in the scene to advance the plot. They could have constructed more logical scenes in that case.
Overall, it was a great movie, and I think most people will enjoy it. Please watch it for the social message and Vijay's performance. You won't be disappointed.
