Search the city for an Indian guy with a mustache!

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!