Mark Antony: Strong Contender For Worst Tamil Film Of 2023

WHAT to make of Adhik Ravichandran’s Mark Antony? Starring Vishal and SJ Suryah in double roles, it is a time travel film in two modes — the actual sci-fi aspect of it doesn’t involve any travel. An invention by a comically transformed Selvaraghavan is a telephone that allows people to make a phone call to someone in the past. They can choose a date, make the call, and talk to the past version of anyone on that date. There are some rules to it like how you levitate during your first-ever call and other things that don’t really matter but that’s the gist. The part that actually involves travel is for the audience. We go on a not so merry, loud ride to the mid-90s and mid-70s, the two time periods that rule the story.

It’s not a head scratcher: Vishal and SJ Suryah are gangster friends and fathers in the mid 70s, and a good mechanic and a spoiled brat of a son in the mid-90s respectively. The time travel and the “mechanic” are bound to throw us back to the “watch mechanic” of another, much better-made Tamil film — Vikram Kumar’s 24 starring Suriya. Mark Antony lacks everything that film had — a coherent story, a binding vision, some internal consistency and healthy regard for the conventions of a mainstream masala film. It is unclear what Mark Antony wants to be. It gives different answers during different instances. Does it want to be a parody of the genre? The performances fall in that register. Does it want to be a mindless caper? The tone gives that but not often enough. Does it want to be one of the worst Tamil films of the year? On that, everyone seems to have agreed and delivered.

You don’t really need the plot but take it anyway because there isn’t much to write home about. Antony (Vishal) and Jackie Pandian (SJ Suryah) were dreaded gangsters in the mid-70s. They were best friends and had a common antagonist in Ekambaram (Sunil). Chiranjeevi (Selvaraghavan) invents this telephone and goes to a bar to celebrate where he witnesses Antony’s murder at the hands of Ekambaram and it becomes Jackie’s lifelong quest to go after him. Jackie grows old, becomes an even bigger gangster with a son Madhan (SJ Suryah) who is trying to take over, and an adopted son in Mark (Vishal) — offspring of Antony — who has grown up detesting his father’s cruel, criminal past and is now an innocent mechanic. What happens when Mark discovers Chiranjeevi’s telephone in the car he is fixing for Ramya (Ritu Varma)? Who is Ramya, you ask? It doesn’t matter.

Whatever world Mark Antony is set in suffers from an epidemic. People are hard of hearing, so everybody shouts at each other all the time. The volume is turned all the way up in everyone’s dialogue delivery and they also repeat their actions in words lest we didn’t get it the first time. What is Mark doing now? He is calling a different date because he’s already made a call to this day and the rules say you can’t make a call to the same day in the past. What is Madhan doing now? He is going to call three days in advance to have enough buffer to give his father three attempts at committing a murder and altering his life. All of this is acted out and spelled out by the characters. Adhik doesn’t trust his writing because there is no writing (though it seems to have taken three names to come up with this nonsense — Adhik, SJ Arjun and R Savari Muthu). They are just making stuff up as they go along. He’s also made stuff up when it comes to period looks. Is that supposed to be the ‘70s look for gangsters? Is that how young men looked in 1995? If that’s the case, why do Rajinikanth and Vijaykanth look different in film posters behind these men? Curious!

Adhik also has to Adhik hard considering his past work. We have a cross dressed YG Mahendran with pigtails in a film that also has Redin Kingsley. Maybe that’s an improvement. The homophobic gaze and a couple of dialogues are definitely not an improvement, they are just old wine in old bottles. Adhik thought he could get away with the time period but not so fast. But then Adhik thought he could get away with using retro songs like Varudhu Varudhu, a few scenes from Ninathaidhai Mudippavan, a compendium of references to Ajith, SJ Suryah’s movies and some sepia tinge colour grading and call it a time travel film. Not so easy. Mark Antony will still be in contention for the worst Tamil film of 2023.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of OTTplay. The author is solely responsible for any claims arising out of the content of this column.)