Here in the West, we like to have explanations for our action heroes.
He might be a former marine or the Chosen One destined to deliver us
from our Gnostic robot overlords, she might be a warrior princess or the
latest in a long line of vampire hunters, but there’s always a reason
given to explain the extreme action. Indian movies rarely bother;
Ganesh (Nagarjuna Akkineni), the hero of Mass (2004) (also known as Meri Jung: One Man Army)
is a mechanic. There’s no reason why he should be able to beat up
twenty people single handedly, or toss six men out of the windows of a
moving car, or raise a dust storm by swirling his foot. He just can,
and it is awesome.
Like many action movie heroes, Ganesh simply wanders into town one
day. He finds a nice apartment, and cheerfully ignores the bullying of
the thuggish college students in the area. The general assumption is
that he’s a pacifist, but when a larger group of thugs follows the
college students home and starts attacking uninvolved locals, Ganesh
steps in and single handedly beats them all up. Suddenly Ganesh is the
most popular man in the area, and attracts the particular attention of
the lovely Priya (Charmy). And then, without warning, it’s Holi.
The city is controlled by a crime lord named Satya (Raghuvaran).
Since he has a bad leg, Satya delegates much of the killing and
intimidating to his son, Seshu (Rahul Dev), who takes a particular
pleasure in his work. He’s good at it, too, so when he receives a phone
call from someone calling himself “Mass”, telling him he’ll die on the
first of the upcoming month, he’s not worried. He starts to worry when
Mass starts picking off his men and eating into his protection racket,
while making the occasional phone call to remind him about the upcoming
deadline. (Mass does not approve of their criminal ways; he’s a
critical Mass.)
Mass is, of course, actually Ganesh. Or rather Ganesh is actually
Mass; he has a tragic back story involving his love for Satya’s daughter
Anjali (Jyothika), the murder of his best friend Adi (Suneel), and
hitting himself in the head repeatedly with a hockey stick. And after
the flashback, it’s back to the action.
Jyothika and Nagarjuna are both attractive people, but neither one
of them is exactly glamorous. They both have charisma to spare,
however, and the combination gives the romantic plot a down to earth
quality, despite Mass’s bizarre courtship methods. And the unexplained
martial arts abilities. And the crime lord father.
Still, a movie like this lives or dies on the strength of its action scenes, and the scenes in Mass
are really pretty good, if you like post-Matrix acrobatics. For an
Indian film the fight choreography is exceptional, and some of the
individual stunts are refreshingly original. As a bonus, the plot is
surprisingly coherent for a big dumb action movie; it’s over-the-top fun
that doesn’t hurt your brain!
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