Chennai, India – Soori, whose very visage is an image of innocence, steps into heroism in Mandaadi, playing a charismatic abrasiveness that is sincere and patient—not collar-up coolness, but button-up kindness. After stepping away from comedic gaffes and supporting characters, Soori has embraced being the central presence in films like Viduthalai, Kottukkaali, and now Mandaadi. He plays Kaali, a man working as a lifeguard at a water park in Chennai, exiled from his village after something traumatic happened there.
The narrative kicks into gear when Maari (Mithun Jai Sankar) attacks Sattapuli’s son and flees to Chennai, taking refuge in Kaali. Sattapuli’s men are on the hunt, and instead of a violent altercation, Kaali decides to return home and fight it out in a boat racing competition. He has to strap together a team from the village boys and train them in around a month. It is the boat racing that offers a new turn to the familiar tale, and for the most part, the scenes at sea capture the choppy waves and shifting winds. However, the film takes shape around two big boat-racing sequences that feel arthritic in their predictable stride.
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Sattapuli (Suhas) is an interesting antagonist, once Kaali’s closest friend, but the film is content with his villainy, refusing to build the friendship into anything more than an excuse to unravel the plot. Just as the friendship is assumed, so Kaali’s love, too, is assumed. Mandaadi makes no effort to build that love as anything except the thing that can unravel. The film’s emotional stakes are so simplistic, it feels like it has picked the easier race to run—and is content with that victory. It keeps toeing its predictable plot till the climactic boat race, which summons whirlpools and deceitful anchors until the race itself becomes irrelevant. It becomes an excuse to hang the film’s drama on, which itself is an excuse to hang the action on.
