Mafia: Chapter 1 is an action-thriller written and directed by Karthick Naren and produced by Subaskaran under the banner Lyca Productions. The film has Arun Vijay, Prasanna, and Priya Bhavani Shankar in the lead roles. It has music by Jakes Bejoy while Gokul Benoy handles the cinematography.
After the breakout success of Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, which came out in 2016, Karthick Naren is back with his next thriller, Mafia: Chapter 1, which is quite similar to D16 in terms of treatment. Both the films proceed normally until the climax, where the director decides to pull the carpet under your feet with an outrageous twist.
While it worked extremely well in D16, the same cannot be said of Mafia, because you're constantly one step ahead of the protagonist Aryan (played by a stylish Arun Vijay) who works for the narcotics bureau along with Sathya (Priya Bhavani Shankar). They have a mission of eradicating drugs in the city, for which they've to eliminate the head of the mafia, DK (a) Divakar.
Prasanna plays Divakar, the head of the drug syndicate and he does look menacing at the start, but something feels odd about his character arc. The clash between the protagonist and antagonist is very crucial for an action thriller of this kind. Here the set up for a face-off between them is fantastic, but all of a sudden Divakar looks like a shadow of his former self and he puts up no fight.
The writing solely banks on the climactic twist, which increases expectations for the film's sequel, rather than surprising you. The film's main issue is that the writing lacks the energy of the first half. Jakes Bejoy's electrifying background score amps up Arun Vijay's performance but does little to the film on the whole. It's not outrightly bad, but, it does little to stand out.
The same can be said of Priya Bhavani Shankar's role. She is present throughout the film but has very little to offer. One of the biggest strengths of Mafia is Gokul Benoy's camera work. Each frame breeds a lot of swagger, and is as stylish as Arun Vijay. There is a massive shootout in the climax and the way it is shot speaks volumes about Gokul's work.
The film is saved by the fantastic climax which makes you forget the less interesting portions. It looks like a film that is made to establish the information required for the sequel, rather than a film that sets out to resolve all the knots in the story.
Karthick Naren once again shows a lot of promise, like what we saw in his previous film. The film starts engaging you slowly as it progresses. If the energy of the climax sustains throughout the sequel, we might get a quality homegrown franchise.