The latest avtar of Superman,
Spiderman, Batman, Iron man Krish – Mask Man is out at the theatres. Since his
origin is at the desk and imagination of Director Mysskin (yes the spell is
right!) who is also credited (?) with the story and screenplay, you are sitting
to watch an incredibly preposterous tale of a guy who is truly super human and
all because he is trained in Kung Fu. It is yet another Friday that brings to
the Indian audience mayhem at its exaggerated high and violence in a new
stylised package.
The tale: Our Avtaar Purush alias Super Man (Jeeva) is an unemployed guy
picking up quarrels on the street to the anger of his dad. He is also training
in Kung fu. On the parallel track we have this gang of masked men who run an
army and go about sneaking into various part of the country executing jewellery
heists with ease. Out of shape ACP (Nasser) is brought in to stall it. There
must a love angle to get the young hero to do the film so you have this Outer
Orbit Electron (debutant Pooja Hegde). Our Outer Orbit Electron is always over
energised and is mode: attack. She unwittingly has Superman arrested for a
street brawl. This accounts for the first encounter between Aged ACP and
Superman. Disturbing the blooming love tale is the track dealing with the
heists carried out with needless killings and depicting the law enforcing
agency in poor light (well earned, some may add).
Before long the Superman is forced to become Maskman. He goes out with balloons
and lands up with guns. The sublimation is theatrical and very unconvincing. It
borders on being amateur. A hazy script and a crazy film is the end product.
The fight is on. At half time you have Aged Police shot at, mask man with gun
in hand and Outer Orbit Electron misunderstanding the scenario. Pigeon headed
people fill our scripts and so it is not surprising. In fact it is perfectly in
tune with the filmmakers assessment of the IQ of the audience. By now we are
shifting and shuffling, we have run short of patience and are hoping against
hope that some thing happens and this when all along the speed of the activity
is high on.
Now you have Bad Guy (Narein) out in the open. Suave, he too has had his
training in Kung fu and can thus meet Maskman on his own playing field. We have
fights after fights between various guys. Part choreographed the stunts are the
main stay of the film and you have to yawn your way through the Director’s idea
of entertainment. He has got it all wrong. Marketed as a stunner from Jeeva and
a bi lingual to boot, that is exactly what it deserves.
Even the cast functions in the defined space of clichés and predictability.
Formulistic to the core, you seek a whiff of fresh air from this predictable
yawn. Style is no substitute for substance, marketing no replacement for
product. This is hard to understand and till then the end products will
continue to plague the clueless and gullible viewer. Hope over common sense.
L. Ravichander.