PS Mithran's Hero is a superhero film that has Sivakarthikeyan and Kalyani Priyadharshan in the lead roles, while Arjun Sarja, Ivana, Robo Shankar, Elango Kumaravel and others play crucial supporting roles. The film is produced by Kotapadi J Rajesh under the banner KJR Studios. The technical team consists of George Williams as the cinematographer and Yuvan Shankar Raja as the Music Director.
The right place to start looking at Hero is PS Mithran's debut Irumbuthirai where he dealt with the issue of cybersecurity. In Hero, he takes on the education system in India and how the students are exploited by the corporates. The film has a Shankar-esque feel to it, in terms of story and the screenplay and there is reference to Shankar's Gentleman, the connecting point being Arjun Sarja which quite worked well.
Sivakarthikeyan plays the role of Sakthi, a man who, as a kid wished to become a superhero like Shaktimaan, but a minor accident quashes those dreams and he ends up starting a printing press for creating fake certificates and degrees. He turns vigilante superhero after a personal tragedy and that turns his life around completely. This is one of the very few superhero films in Tamil Cinema, but whether it is satisfactory is a question that is left unanswered.
This is because Hero also tries to convey a proper message like Irumbuthirai but it is more on your face. The preachy treatment results in a lot of less engaging moments. Sivakarthikeyan carries the Superhero look quite well and shoulders the film. There are many entertaining moments of banter between Siva and Robo Shankar which could be utilised throughout. Instead, the film starts off on a casual note, then suddenly becomes very serious and this tonal shift takes time to adapt.
One of the biggest positives is the way Hero has been shot and the credit goes to George C Williams. The lighting is superb, and the interval block fight involving Arjun and Sivakarthikeyan stands out because of his work. Kalyani Priyadharshan enters Tamil Cinema through this film and her role looks promising at the start but is underused.
Another issue with Hero is the transformation of Sivakarthikeyan into a Superhero which happens after almost two hours into the film. The audience, therefore, is forced to wait for a long time to see their favourite hero in a new avatar. There are a lot of good inspiring moments in Hero, with a lot of potentials, but that has not been tapped into properly. Had there been more Sivakarthikeyan moments or had the film been a full-fledged superhero film, the engagement would have been better. As of now, it is confused between a message film and a superhero film.
Special mention to the director PS Mithran for showing the actual heroes and their inventions as a part of the end credits. Their inventions are extremely significant and will surely inspire you