Mask Movie Review:

Morality. In today’s time and age, is there a place for absolutism? Probably why, in a world filled with morally grey people, the ones who manage to err on the side of caution are seen as good people. After all, it is all about what you do when no one is watching, and there aren’t any consequences to your actions, right? This is the core theme of debutant director Vikarnan Ashok’s Mask, which guises a story of right, wrong, and everything in between, under the garb of a money heist that is too much style, and unfortunately, not enough substance.

Director: Vikarnan Ashok

Cast: Kavin, Andrea Jeremiah, Pawan Krishna, Kalloori Vinoth

Mask opens with a heist done by a masked gang, and a quirky voiceover by director Nelson. He introduces the players in a rather whimsical way. We have a gang of robbers. We have the philanthropist Bhoomi (Andrea Jeremiah), who needs to find the robbers. We have politician Manivannan (Pawan Krishna), who also needs to find the robbers. And then… we have Velu (Kavin), who… You guessed it right… has to find the robbers. And what do the robbers have to do? Exist in plain sight and wait for the various players to find their way to them. But Mask doesn’t build up to a crescendo as most of the films in this genre do. Instead, it is happier giving brief bursts of energy that might not stay for long, but it is entertaining while it lasts.

Considering the film begins with a voiceover by Nelson, it almost feels like a toned-down version of his very own filmography. This works in favour of the film because right from the word go, we understand the tone of Mask. However, soon enough, the film tends to flatter to deceive on more than one occasion. This is seen best in the portions involving Bhoomi and her gang. She is flanked by people who look straight out of the Nelson Cinematic Universe. They can actually walk out of Mask and enter any of Nelson’s films, and you wouldn’t notice the difference. Kavin’s Velu is money-minded to a fault, and is a rather interesting character, which blossoms into something really wonderful around his love interest, Rathi (Ruhani Sharma). While both these setups have decent payoffs, they don’t have that final punch to the gut that tends to elevate such whimsical layers. It isn’t enough if you take the horse to the river. It isn’t enough to make it thirsty and sip on the water. In such films, it is also important to tickle the horse so much that it spits out the water from the same river. That is where Mask falters because it pulls back punches and doesn’t completely commit to its wackiness.

With a story revolving around Rs 440 crores of missing cash, a detective who doesn’t mind making a quick buck even if it means deceiving his own client, a philanthropist with a dark secret to hide, a politician with his fair share of skeletons in the closet, eight masked people, and a bunch of quirky characters who fleet in and out of the narrative, Mask should have been infinitely more entertaining. But it misses out a trick or two because of certain aspects not translating well onscreen. Kavin’s Velu is a lot of fun, but he shouldn’t have been burdened by heroism or stardom. In fact, when he is liberated from the same and plays a flawed character, along with a terrific Ruhani, the scenes are brilliant. It is a shame that we aren’t given a lot more of this awesome twosome. Similarly, Andrea’s Bhoomi is super sinister, but the rather one-note nature of her portrayal, and the character feeling too superficial to actually leave an impact, lets the film down. Her coterie manages to shine sparingly. There is an extended scene in a supermarket where the masked gang pulls down the proverbial masks of the common people, and the scene is set for a glimpse into how easy it is to unravel mob morality. However, this scene extends its welcome and enters into the bizarre instead of waltzing in the nonsensical. This is a very thin line, and Mask, unfortunately, ends up on the wrong side on more than one occasion. 

Similarly, even when the principal characters face dire consequences for their actions, we don’t really get emotionally connected with them. Although GV Prakash Kumar tries his best to dial up the zaniness, he gets undone by a narrative that doesn’t always reflect the urgency of the matter. What should have been an eccentric dark comedy about the grey nature of people with questionable morals is painted over with broad strokes to give us a middling mural that needed to embrace its colours without pandering to the comfort of the mainstream.