Under The Spotlight: Masss (Mass Engira Masilamani)

After Anjaan, Surya has a lot to prove to the industry and also the general audience that he is still the same quality actor as before. Why he turned down a film with Gautham Menon and picked Venkat Prabhu will always remain a great mystery.

Story Review

It will be hard to classify the genre of the film. It was said to be a "Horror Comedy", well they got it right with "Comedy" but was far off the mark for "Horror". In general I would say this is just another commercial film by Venkat Prabhu, but with a different refreshing concept.

Every time you watch a Tamil horror film, the story will always go in the following flow:

Comedy-Paranormal Activity & Killings- The Ghost's Flashbacks- The lead character helps the ghost completes her task.

Well usually 90% of Tamil Horror films, the ghost is usually female. Well Venkat Prabhu did go with this same flow but added a little twist of his ideas which makes the whole film refreshing to watch.

The movie revolves around 2 con men named Masss and Jet (Surya and Premgi) who cons people to make ends meet. In one of their con job, they got caught robbing from the local area don and is being lead to some science defying fight scenes and chase which ends in a tragic accident for both Mass and Jet.

Upon recovering from the accident Masss realizes that he has the power to see ghost. The scene where he is able to see the ghost/monster is one you will live to forget. Such horrible graphic work was done there. Masss was later told by some guruji that he is blessed with this power and should focus on seeing ghost as humans and not be afraid of them.

It works for him and soon after he realizes that Jet actually passed away from the accident, and the Jet that has been around him after the accident was just his spirit. Masss and Jet than ghost on recruiting the balance of the spirit cast whereby he promises to help them, if they help him make money

Masss and Co, goes to people's house and scare them as if their house is haunted. The paranoid house owners reaches out to Masss who tells them there he is a ghostbuster and "cleanses" the house. In return the house owners pays Masss a handsome fee

This goes on until one day Masss meets a spirit that looks like him. This spirit named Sakthi brainwashes Masss that he can help Masss rob a wealthy guy of RS 750 Million. Blinded by greed, Masss agrees and in a turn of events, Sakthi tricks Masss to kill this wealthy guy by the name of Anthony by running a car over him

Disgusted by this fact, Masss stays away from Sakthi. Soon the rest of the spirits threaten to leave Masss and follow Sakthi away. Only than Masss realizes his true purpose of having this supernatural power. It's not about him becoming rich, but helping this spirits to fulfill their last wishes.

Again with a twist of events, Sakthi tricks Masss to kill one of R.K and Anthony's henchmen by setting him on fire. In anger Masss forces Sakthi to leave him only to be told later that Sakthi is actually Masss's father and how RK, Anthony, The Henchmen and a police officer murder Sakthi, The Wife and His Daughter.

Fueled by the anger and vengence, Masss decides to murder R.K to fulfill his father's last wish and its no rocket science that he achieves it.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Director Review

This marks Venkat Prabhu 6th outing as a director and he seems to have set a trend how his movies are going to be. Its simple, take a good concept, get lost throughout the movie, uses comedy and commercial elements to entertain the crowd while covering that he is lost how the movie should develop (poor screenplay) and finally bring you to the climax which you already know an hour ago how its going to end. 

The so called twist which he applies in his plot is so visible even a blind man would see it coming. To his credit, he did try something different in Masss. The concept about spirits seeking a normal man for help and how he uses the spirits for his benefit was pleasing to watch. But to play safe and ensure commercial success, he had to go back to the concept of seeking revenge for the spirit.

Venkat Prabhu serves as an inspiration that if someone like him can be a director, than anyone can be a director. My biggest disappointment in this film movie is that he sorted out to the cheapest trick in book of a commercial film. He had his characters quoting dialogues from different actor's movie.

There were so many references to other movies used here. How Surya uses the famous Manktha movie line to the proposal way in Varnam Ayiram to even seeking out Kathi's theme music. This are usually tricks used for upcoming mass commercial actors. To apply it for a Surya movie was horrible.

One thing I liked about Venkat Prabhu in this film was how he link the way Sakthi, The wife and The Daughter died to the way how Anthony, The Henchmen, R.K and The Police Officer dies. The table below will show you the link:

Flashback	Current Time
Police Officer stabs Sakthi	Police Officer dies by being stabbed
Anthony murdered Sakthi’s daughter by running a car over her	Masss knocks Anthony with a car which kills him
The Henchmen burns The Wife alive	The Hencemen gets burned by electrical shock
RK whacks Sakthi heavily before drowning him	Masss whacks RK heavily before throwing him into the sea to be drowned

That was something nice and smart done by Venkat Prabhu and I have to give him credit for that

6 movies in and I am still yet to be convinced that Venkat Prabhu is a quality director. How he ever convinced Surya and Ajith to act in his films is a true miracle. Lets see if he can get it right on his 7th attempt, which I highly doubt it

Rating: 1.7/ 5.0

The Cast and Crew

Surya

Surya plays a double role in the forms of Masss and Sakthi which turns out to be father and son. There was a distinctive difference in both the characters which was encouraging to watch. I felt he look horrible with pony tail but looks cool as Mass. I would let the ladies to decide that.

He nailed his performance very well in this film. He gave everything needed for both the characters and was able to convince us well that they are two total different characters. He seemed so convincing whereby it looks like he doesn't need to put much effort in it. Such is his quality as an actor. 

Why is doing horrible commercial movies like Singam and Anjaan is something only he can answer. It is very obvious that he is way much more talented than all this and I hope he does step things up again and remind us his true qualities as an actor

Rating: 3.7/5.0

Nayanthara

If you notice well, during the story review I never mentioned a single word about Nayanthara's character. Well because that is just how the film was. If you haven't watch the film yet and if I were to edit the film, cutting off all of Nayanthara scenes, you wouldn't realize a single difference at all

Her character was so poorly used in the film. No importance in the film and does not impact the film's plot in anyway at all. Honestly, Nayanthara's character in Nanbenda (which is a horrible comedy movie) was better than her role in Masss

The role of the second heroine (Pranitha Subhash) who was just limited to a song sequence and just a couple of scenes, seemed to have more importance and impact in the film compared to Nayanthara's role. I would rather see this role go to a newcomer compared to Nayanthara

Rating: 2.1/5.0

Premgi Amaren

Compared to all six movies that Premgi has acted in Venkat Prabhu's film, I will consider this his best performance of them all. It is well known that he is not the best actor in the world and he seems to have only one way in his comedy scenes.

But in Masss, I felt I saw a different dimension of Premgi and that was a pleasant thing to watch and hope he gets signed on for different films. He comedy sense and timing was good and formed a good chemistry with Surya.

Rating: 3.4/5.0

Samuthirakani

Perhaps the best performer of the entire cast. The way he acts will truly convince you like he is some 50 to 60 year old men whereby in real life he is just 42 years old. He had done it multiple times playing characters which look like 50 plus or even 30 plus. Such versatility the men has in him. Just watch his scenes to enjoy his performance.

         Rating: 3.8/5.0

The Music

I'm not so good with music, by my opinion would be as if Yuvan seems to have lost is midas touch. None of the songs is going to go on loop in my playlist nor neither caught my attention during the film. He did a good job with the rerecording. He has done greater job in his past and I am sure he is capable of better

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Overall Masss is just a mass commercial horror comedy film which will never go done to be remember as one of the great Surya films. This film has all the commercial elements to be a huge hit and I wont be surprise this film does well in the box office. If you are like commercial film or if you are a Surya fan, than this is a must watch film for you

Final Verdict: Masss is not Classs but it is one for the general audience

Final Rating: 2.96/5.00