When the mask finally unveils after a crisp two-hour runtime, the face you see behind it isn’t that of Kavin, the promising actor who, after Bloody Beggar, has once again daringly taken on an off-beat genre, or Andrea Jeremiah, the ever-impressive acting-singing phenom playing the other lead. The face we see is of the writer-director Vikarnan Ashok — able, quirky, and ambitious, but self-doubting.
In his debut directorial Mask, Vikarnan would’ve hoped that the quirky treatment of his heady crime-thriller story targeting the Gen Zs would mask his insecurities as a debutant filmmaker, but the ruse falls through multiple times. Take, for instance, how overtly the film keeps underlining Kavin’s crooked protagonist Velu’s crookedness and moral standpoint.
The writer understands how overdone the ‘white knight Robin Hood’ trope has become in Tamil cinema, and so he understandably writes Velu as an anti-hero, a “kettavan”, but with a moral spine — the character design and how we are taken through what he does for a living are all tastefully delivered in the beginning. He is a hacker, scammer, and blackmailer — with ‘ethical’ as the standard prefix. He’s the spoiled brat son of a hotelier, a money-minded jackal with a talented support team, a conniving detective, and a man who wouldn’t open up about his marital status to a love-interest (Ruhani Sharma) until guilt pricks him.
That very introduction sequence to the character and how he gets entangled with the conflict does the job, but somehow, the writer feels compelled to keep repeating dialogues that go “Naan kettavan, aana eccha illa,” or give us a disclaimer every time Velu is about to shed his skin.
The same applies to even Andrea’s antagonist, Bhumi, a shady business owner and philanthropist who heads an NGO that protects children from sex slavery, all of whom would someday end up in her sex work outfit. On one hand, she uses these girls to take control of who she believes is the future CM (Manivannan, played by Pawan), and on the other, she protects them with an iron fist. She too doesn’t shy from calling herself Bad or to show the Good and the Ugly their places.
Then again, her shades of grey are spelt out rather than woven organically in the narrative. This is why scenes that show Kavin’s heroism or Andrea’s villainy appear forced, as if Vikarnan was checking off a list of ingredients that make the off-beat treatment more palatable.
Mask (Tamil)
Director: Vikarnan Ashok
Cast: Kavin, Andrea Jeremiah, Ruhani Sharma, Pawan
Runtime: 122 minutes
Storyline: A crooked man and an evil woman lock horns as they attempt to retrieve a huge consignment of black money from a mysterious gang of robbers
Vikarnan’s struggle becomes pathetically apparent in how he attempts to strike sentimentality or social commentary, as ‘boring but necessary’ elements. He wants to appeal to a certain emotional core — through an arc about what turns MG Ramachandran into Radha Ravis — and tell a thing or two without seeming didactic, and so, a character utters, “This must be very boring, as are the backstories of good people, but we don’t have an option but to listen.” The flashback that follows and how it is told only further exposes the writer’s insecurities.
This self-conscious storytelling concerns you because the same film from a more confident Vikarnan wouldn’t have to worry about such concerns. In this story, when a mysterious gang wearing Radha Ravi masks steal a consignment of Rs. 440 crores from Bhumi, she helplessly appoints Velu to crack the case — not knowing that he too might be sheltering his own secrets from the night of the robbery. Why does she hire a petty detective when the amount involved is so big? Well, that money is the election fund Manivannan needs to make a splash at the upcoming elections. While she needs a brainy detective, like Velu, she also needs him pegged and disposable, again, like Velu.
Andrea Jeremiah in a still from ‘Mask’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
It’s a grounded story about Bad vs Bad — which disappointingly tapers in reasoning and effect — and there are many streaks of ingenuity, like the stretch that begins with a heist on a supermarket and ends with a hilarious twist involving Achyuth Kumar’s character. Or the back-and-forth checks between Velu and Bhumi in this game of chess. The many pockets of dark humour keep you amused, be it a casual conversation between Velu and a security guard, or a man making his wife dance to an Ilaiyaraaja song at a precarious situation, or the darkest of all, the frantic situation in which ‘Naan Sirithaal Deepavali’ plays in the background. Many quirky ideas stay with you as well, like how Velu’s gang schemes their plans at a Karupatti coffee stall, with one row drinking black coffee and the other holding cups of milk coffee.
Mask is also ably supported by the technical team — the lip-sync, however, is excruciatingly off in the songs — and cinematographer RD Rajasekhar, composer GV Prakash Kumar and the team behind the film’s production design all deserve praise.
During the pre-release event of Mask, director Nelson, whose voiceover narrates the film, said that he had advised director-producer Vetri Maaran — who was then the film’s producer — to soften a few ideas and remove a few risky ones entirely. Given how blunt the final cut has turned out, you only wish to see the film Vikarnan would have made had he been empowered to execute his original vision.
Mask is currently running in theatres
Published – November 21, 2025 07:45 pm IST
