Mersal... Not much of an astonishment!!!

It's Diwali. Play it safe!!. A definite celebration for hardcore Thalapathy fans. For others, a mere masala pot boiler with a message on healthcare.

Mersal is like watching a mash up of the best scenes and screen play from Moondru Mugam+ Aboorva Sagothargal + Sivaji + Anniyan. The story line from MM, some of the "killing" scenes from AS, intro scene from Sivaji and the punishment scenes of Anniyan.

Screenplay - Racy

Romance scenes - Cute

Action scenes - Fire

Message - Good

Story - Leaves a lot to think about

But for the racy screenplay the movie would be a damp squib. 3 heroines, of which 2 are just there for a few scenes. Only Nithya Menon has anything of substance to deliver. And she does. Kajol and Samantha are the usual glamour dolls.

In the first half, all of the songs are thrust in with no need. And this unnecessarily drags the movie. The second half is full of cliche scenes. No element of suspense or surprise. The movie keeps going ahead with just the presence of Vijay's on screen. A definite crowd puller. However, even he falters in his delivery of the message at the end. Too much resemblance to the message scene in ARM's Katthi. Thalapathy has to get better at this.

So, what makes this a crowd puller? In spite of all the deterrents, the movie is still engaging. Not engrossing, however, better than most others. If only the dragging portions were left out, some of the loose ends tied up properly, this could have been made to be a better movie.