Mersal (2017)

A magician and a doctor attempt to expose the corruption at the heart of India's medical industry.

Director:

Atlee Kumar

Writers:

Atlee Kumar, Vijayendra Prasad (screenplay)

Stars:

Joseph Vijay, S.J. Surya, Kajal Aggarwal

9 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joseph Vijay	...	Vetrimaaran / Maaran / Vetri
S.J. Surya	...	Dr. Daniel Arokyaraj
Kajal Aggarwal	...	Anupallavi
Samantha Ruth Prabhu	...	Tara
Nithya Menon	...	Aishwarya Vetrimaaran
Vadivelu	...	Vadivu (as Vadivel)
Kovai Sarala	...	Sarala
Sathyan	...	Police Officer
Rajendran
Yogi Babu	...	Nolan
Kaali Venkat	...	Auto Driver
Hareesh Peradi	...	Dr. Arjun Zachariah
Devatharshini
Surekha Vani
Misha Ghoshal	...	Media Anchor

Storyline

Maaran, a sincere doctor who fights against corruption and Vettri a magician who is out for a revenge. Both of them are estranged brothers and once they come together, they get to know about their common enemy, Daniel, who had killed their father and mother.

---

Plot Keywords:

magician | doctor | wrestler | fight | magic | 

---

Taglines:

Festival Soon

---

Genres:

Action | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil Hindi Telugu

Release Date:

18 October 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Zapped

Filming Locations:

Macedonia

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

INR 2,540,000,000, 16 November 2017

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sony Music India, Sri Thenandal Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

172 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Vijay acts in 3 different characters for the first time in this film.

---

Goofs

There is inconsistency regarding Vetri's year of birth throughout the movie. As per Maaran it is 1984, as per Daniel it is 1987 and as per Salim Ghosh it is 1990.

---

Quotes

Vetri: There are million way to get rich, but medicine is not the route. Till the last broker in this business is busted and bashed... my struggle will continue.

---

Crazy Credits

The title card of the film is shown after the opening scenes.

---

Alternate Versions

In Singapore, the film was edited for it's theatrical release; moments of stronger violence and disturbing images were removed in order to obtain a PG13 classification (after the uncut version of the film was rated NC16)

---

Connections

Spoofed in Thamizh Padam 2 (2018)

---

Soundtracks

Mersal Arasan
Performed by G.V. Prakash Kumar, Saranya Srinivas, Naresh Iyer
Music A.R. Rahman

User Reviews

Super fun & adrenaline pumping! Yet also really emotional, great experience centered on a strong social crusade.

I went to this film after a colleague recommended it. I'll be frank I wasn't fond of the really random dance sequences (as an American they're a bit too random for me, though Mr. Vijay can dance really well) but the film got those out of the way early. I was told a couple things about this film before going in- it is a huge "mass masala" so it fuses many different genres together. And that the actor, Vijay, is an enormous superstar in the Tamil state who the people really adore. As soon as the film started, the audience whistled and cheered at just his name appearing on the screen! And then when he first appears in the film, the audience was overjoyed and so many cheers, I've never been among a crowd like that. It's crazy I hadn't seen a film by Vijay yet but I got chills seeing how much the audience loved him. And throughout the film, it was too easy to see why: spectacular performances as 3 different people, and he nailed them all. Especially the village role, was a terrific and moving performance, he has a huge screen presence and powerful flair about him. I've noticed that the Indian superstars are really a class apart in this, I can see these select few are at that level due to these certain intangibles that have won over the audience, its an trait I don't see in even the biggest of Hollywood actors. Anyway about the actual film's story, the beginning had more comedic elements, I didn't understand some of the jokes, but that's okay because there is tons more to this film. I felt the first female character was completely unnecessary and the second one was acceptable but also not needed. The third actress, however, was GREAT! Nithya Mennon is her name, she and Vijay in the second half brought tears to my eyes repeatedly, I didn't expect to be so moved! I had similar reactions to some really heart-wrenching scenes in the first half as well, the film had lots of emotional power at its core. The film was unique to me in that Vijay's characters stood up so strongly against corruption, malpractices and deception by the medical industry, especially against the poor people- the people who need it the most but end up also losing the most in these scenarios. A new subject for me, handled so well. I'm not aware of what the medical policies for patients in India are like, do people always pay before the treatment or is that just certain types of hospitals? Some questions I would just ask my colleagues on Monday. Another thing was when Vijay's characters said certain dialogues, the crowd cheered and clapped a lot, especially during his speech scenes where he criticizes many injustices in front of large crowds in the film. Not only did the crowd in the film cheer strongly, so did my audience! It was as if I was in the film. And the action!! It was tremendous, lots of intense fight scenes with nice use of wire-work. Every hit by Mr. Vijay felt powerful with lots of emotions to it: these aren't your normal "beat up the bad guys because they're against you" fight scenes but rather they felt like a man who has had to go through so much emotional pain that every punch and kick roared of justice. And wow was the crowd happy and loud during these fights! Wonderful experience really, I laughed, cried and was also really fired up during the film. I'm interested to watch more of Vijay's films now and I will definitely anticipate when his next film releases.